Lilongwe and Harare have reviewed the maize loan payment plan on the remaining amount that Zimbabwe is supposed to pay Malawi, three months after the two countries agreed to settle the debt through fuel.
The two countries have agreed that Zimbabwe will still pay through fuel but worth US$24.1 million and not US$20 million as Harare had earlier thought.
This means that Harare now owes Malawi US$19 million having already supplied Lilongwe fuel worth US$5 million in July this year.
Malawi’s Director of Debt and Aid at the Ministry of Finance Mr. Peter Simbani, who led the Malawian negotiating team to Harare, told Zodiak Online that Zimbabwe did not object to the new arrangement.
“The Zimbabwe government agreed to amend its contract with a fuel supplier, Sakunda Energy, which initially was pegged at US$20 million dollars now to a total US$24.1 million. We have agreed that the total amount be paid between now and December this year,” he said.
The debt, which Zimbabwe has been failing to pay back for five years, is a balance from a US$100 million maize loan it borrowed from Malawi to buy and import maize.
According to Mr Simbani, as Harare continues paying the loan it is expected that this month Zimbabwe will release about 4.2 million litters and the same amount every month up to December.
