The short version
Zambia defaulted in November 2020. A default means the borrower did not pay what it had promised, when it had promised it. Zambia then went through a restructuring — a negotiated rewrite of the debt, in which holders of the old bonds hand them in and receive new bonds with different terms in their place.
That exchange settled on 11 June 2024. Roughly US$3bn of defaulted bonds — the lines that had been due in 2022, 2024 and 2027 — were swapped for two new instruments, which the deal documents call Fixed Rate Step-Up Amortising Notes. Both are borrowings in US dollars and both pay interest on the same two dates each year, 30 June and 31 December.
Two pieces of jargon sit in that name. Amortising means the principal — the amount borrowed — is repaid in slices on a schedule, rather than in a single lump on the final day. A bond that does repay everything at the end is called a bullet, and it is what most people picture when they think of a bond. Step-up means the interest rate is not the same for the whole life of the bond: it is set at one level to begin with and rises to a higher level on a date fixed in advance. Nothing has to happen for a step-up to take effect — it is in the contract, and the date is known from the start.
The thing a newcomer is most likely to get wrong here is the second bond. Its headline coupon of 0.5% and its 2053 maturity are only one of two possible futures for it. Which future applies depends on a trigger, explained next.
What "state-contingent" means, and how Zambia's version works
A state-contingent bond is one whose terms change if some agreed external condition is met. The condition is written into the bond, it is measured against a published outside yardstick rather than anything the issuer controls day to day, and until it is met the bond simply runs on its ordinary terms. Restructurings sometimes use this design so that creditors share in a recovery if one arrives, without the country having to promise higher payments it may not be able to afford.
In Zambia's case the second bond, Bond B, has a base case and an upside case. The base case is the one in force: 0.5% interest paid in cash, twice a year, with the principal repaid in three roughly equal instalments in 2051, 2052 and 2053.
If the trigger fires, three things change at once. The cash interest rate rises to 1.5%, a further 6% is paid in kind — meaning that instead of handing over cash, the borrower adds the interest to the amount it owes, so the debt grows and is settled later — for a combined 7.5%. And the final repayment date jumps forward from 2053 to 2035, nearly two decades earlier.
The trigger itself is an upgrade by the International Monetary Fund of Zambia's assessed debt-carrying capacity from weak to medium, or alternatively Zambia's exports and revenue coming in above the projections used in the deal. The window in which the trigger can fire runs to the end of 2028. Our tracker records that as at mid-2026 it had not fired: the IMF composite indicator that drives the assessment stood at 2.60, below the 2.69 threshold. Whether it fires before the window closes is not something we will guess at, and nothing on this page should be read as a prediction either way.
The two bonds
Both are in US dollars and both pay interest on 30 June and 31 December each year. The identifiers shown are Reg S ISINs — the code for the tranche of a bond sold to investors outside the United States. Our tracker could not find matching 144A codes, the US-institutional equivalent, in public records for either bond.
Bond A — 5.75% stepping to 7.50%, due 30 June 2033
The shorter of the two notes issued in the June 2024 exchange, and the only one of the pair carried on this site's price page.
It is a front-loaded amortiser: the largest slices of principal come back early in its life rather than at the end, so a substantial part of the original amount has already been repaid. It is also a step-up, with the coupon rising from 5.75% to 7.50% on 30 June 2031 — a step that is still in the future, and one that will happen on that date whatever else is going on.
- Currency
- US dollars confirmed
- Coupon
- 5.75%, rising to 7.50% on 30 June 2031 confirmed
- Final maturity
- 30 June 2033 confirmed
- Repayment
- Eleven instalments running from 2024 to 2033, weighted towards the early years: two payments in 2024 of 11% and 4.65% of the original principal, then 9.24% in 2025, 17% in 2026, 17% in 2027, 7.5% in 2028, 0.5% in each of 2029, 2030 and 2031, and 16.05% and 16.06% in 2032 and 2033 inferredThis schedule is inferred. Our tracker took it from a reproduction of the term sheet published by the Center for Global Development, not from the offering document itself, and flags both the exact percentages and the reference date for checking against the 2024 Exchange Offer Memorandum inferred
- Interest dates
- 30 June and 31 December confirmed
- 144A twin
- None found in public records; our tracker carries this as an open item inferred
Bond B — 0.5% due 31 December 2053, state-contingent
The long note from the same exchange, and the unusual one. Under the terms in force it pays very little interest and repays a very long way out; if the IMF trigger described above fires before the end of 2028, it pays considerably more and repays much sooner.
In 2026 Zambia launched a cash tender for the whole line — an offer to buy the bonds back from holders for cash — covering about US$1,365m. Our tracker records that around 98% was tendered and that the line is largely being retired as a result, with the amount left outstanding still to be confirmed. Fitch is recorded as treating that tender as not a distressed debt exchange.
This bond does not appear on our price page. The site prices Bond A only. Two reasons: almost all of Bond B was bought back in the 2026 tender, and a bond whose coupon and maturity both hinge on a trigger that has not yet fired cannot honestly be valued off its base-case terms alone. We would rather leave it off the price page and explain it here than publish a number we do not stand behind.
- Currency
- US dollars confirmed
- Coupon
- 0.5% in cash under the base case, which is the case in force confirmed
- Final maturity
- 31 December 2053 under the base case confirmed
- If the trigger fires
- 1.5% in cash plus 6% paid in kind, a combined 7.5%, and the maturity moves forward to 2035 confirmed
- Trigger status
- Not fired as at mid-2026; the trigger stays live to the end of 2028 confirmed
- Repayment
- Three instalments of roughly one third each in 2051, 2052 and 2053, under the base case inferred
- Interest dates
- 30 June and 31 December confirmed
- Amount
- The 2026 cash tender covered the full line, about US$1,365m stated as approximate
- Amount outstanding
- Not yet confirmed; about 98% was tendered and is being retired stated as approximate
- 144A twin
- None found in public records; our tracker carries this as an open item inferred
What happened to the old bonds
The three Eurobonds Zambia had before the default — due 2022, 2024 and 2027, together about US$3bn — no longer exist. They were handed in and cancelled in the 11 June 2024 exchange, and the two notes above were issued in their place. If you come across a reference to a Zambian 2027 Eurobond, it belongs to the period before the restructuring.
What we are not sure about
Our tracker keeps its own list of things still to confirm against primary documents, and it records one figure that appears to contradict itself. Both are repeated here rather than quietly tidied away.
Bond A's repayment schedule comes from a reproduction, not the original document
The instalment percentages shown for Bond A are inferred. They were taken from the Center for Global Development's reproduction of the deal's term sheet rather than from the 2024 Exchange Offer Memorandum, which is the document that actually governs the bond.
Our tracker carries an open action to confirm the exact percentages and the reference date from which they run, along with the first accrual date, against that memorandum. Anything on this page tagged as inferred sits in that category.
How much of Bond A has already been repaid is stated two ways in our own tracker
The tracker's summary table describes Bond A as having about 58% already redeemed. Elsewhere the same tracker records an outstanding factor of 0.5811 for the bond, which reads the other way round — about 58% still owed, and therefore around 42% repaid.
The instalment schedule reproduced above sums to 100% and puts just under 42% of the original principal due by the middle of 2026, which is consistent with the second reading rather than the first. We are not treating that arithmetic as settled, because the schedule it rests on is itself inferred. Until the Exchange Offer Memorandum is checked, treat the exact proportion repaid as unconfirmed.
Bond B's outstanding amount after the 2026 tender
About 98% of Bond B was tendered in the 2026 cash tender, but our tracker records the amount left outstanding once the tender fully settles as still to be confirmed. We are not going to publish a residual figure until it is.
Only Reg S identifiers were found
Large dollar bonds are often sold in two parallel tranches with separate identification codes: a Reg S tranche aimed at investors outside the United States, and a 144A tranche for certain US institutions. The two are the same borrowing, but each carries its own ISIN.
Only the Reg S ISINs appear in the public records our tracker uses. The 144A codes for both bonds remain to be found and confirmed.
Where every figure here comes from
Every term on this page traces to a public record. Our tracker names the following sources without giving web addresses for them, so we cite them in words rather than linking.
| What it tells us | Source |
|---|---|
| The ISINs and the amounts issued in the June 2024 exchange | Republic of Zambia, Ministry of Finance settlement announcement, published on the ministry's website at mofnp.gov.zm |
| The coupons, the 2031 step-up, Bond A's amortisation ladder and Bond B's base and upside profiles | Center for Global Development, Zambia case study, and Debt Justice, deal analysis — both reproducing the deal's term sheet |
| The definition of the state-contingent trigger and its status as at mid-2026 | Sovdebtoddities, together with the IMF's Debt Sustainability Analyses |
| The 2026 cash tender for Bond B, its size and the proportion tendered | Coverage by CNBC Africa, Ecofin Agency and Fitch |
| Bond A's exact instalment percentages and reference date | Not yet from a primary document — inferred from the term-sheet reproduction above and flagged for checking against the Republic of Zambia's 2024 Exchange Offer Memorandum |
How we work out the price
Nothing on this page is a price. Terms change rarely — a coupon, a maturity date and a repayment schedule are fixed when the bond is sold — so a reference page can state them once and stand. Prices change all day, so they live on the price page and only there. If a figure here ever disagrees with one there, this page is the one to distrust, and we would like to hear about it.
What the two have to do with each other is this. On a normal trading day a closing quote for these bonds reaches us from the market, and that anchors what the price page shows. Between closes the price moves with the things that move this market: US Treasury yields, how much extra return investors demand for African sovereign risk, market volatility and, for commodity exporters, commodity prices. Where a bond repays in instalments rather than in one go, the calculation also has to know how much of it is left on any given day — which is what the repayment schedules above are for. Get a schedule wrong and the published price is wrong.
Information only. This page is general educational material about how this market works. Nothing here is investment, financial, legal or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Prices shown elsewhere on this site are indicative and are not an offer to trade.
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