Zambia wants to be a model for resolving Africa’s debt crises

AFTER FIVE unsuccessful attempts and a spell in prison on trumped-up charges of treason, Hakainde Hichilema was elected president of Zambia in August. The businessman’s victory was due to voters’ anger at the corruption and collapsing economy overseen by his predecessor, Edgar Lungu. The West was cock-a-hoop. So too were mining firms, which had all but stopped investing in Africa’s second-largest copper producer because of high taxes and threats of expropriation.

Nine months later, is Mr Hichilema enjoying the job he craved? “It’s not fun trying to rebuild a damaged economy,” he tells The Economist, “but someone has to do it.”