Donors give US $97m in aid

Multilateral donors have given Zambia over $97 million for direct budget support and development aid. The European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) have disbursed $60 million direct budget support, and the World Bank (WB) has approved $37.2 million for an Agricultural Sector Development project (ASDP), secretary of the treasury, Evans Chibiliti has announced. According to him, $12.2 million is a credit line for farmers and agricultural businesses, while $15 million is for rural roads. He said the EU has disbursed K175 billion ($43.8 million) as direct budget support after a satisfactory assessment of the Zambian economy under the Poverty Reduction Budget Support program. The UK government disbursed K56 billion ($14 million) for direct budget support of which K24 billion ($6 million) was earmarked for medical user fees in the ministry of health. Chibiliti noted that the total budget support to Zambia now stands at $102 million disbursed by the UK, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands this year. (African News Dimension, South Africa)