Zimbabwe’s ballooning national debt is choking government spending on health care, with the Ministry of Health receiving only 28 percent of its requested 2026 budget despite a rise in the health allocation, economists and public health advocates said at a media breakfast on national debt this week.
Total debt stood at approximately US$23.7 billion as of June 2026, compared with an estimated gross domestic product of US$57.7 billion, according to economist Dr Tichaona Zivengwa of Africa Economic Development Strategies, who presented the figures. External debt made up 53.8 percent of the total and domestic debt 46.2 percent, while arrears and penalties accounted for 46.3 percent of all outstanding obligations.
Zivengwa said domestic Treasury instruments carried interest rates of between 14.5 and 16 percent, and that 45.4 percent of total debt would mature within a year, adding pressure on the government to refinance. Debt servicing consumed 19.5 percent of export earnings, with payments between January and June 2025 reaching about US$220.3 million.
The financial strain comes against a backdrop of pressing health and social needs. The presentation cited a stunting rate of 27 percent among children under five, found that 49.5 percent of young people are neither employed nor in education or training, and noted that 92 percent of Zimbabweans pay for health care out of pocket due to limited insurance coverage. The health budget rose from US$785.9 million in 2025 to roughly US$997 million in 2026, yet the shortfall against ministry requests remains steep.
Public financial management gaps compounded the problem. Ministries, departments and agencies accumulated approximately US$1.7 billion in unapproved commitments between 2022 and 2024, Zivengwa said, with 78 percent of arrears tied to capital projects. He singled out the Tokwe-Mukorsi project, where spending far exceeded original estimates, as an example of cost overruns straining public finances.
Clever Taderera of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation said the human cost of the debt crisis is often obscured by economic figures. “Behind debt statistics are real people and communities whose access to public services can be affected by how national resources are raised, allocated and managed,” he said.
The strain extends beyond Zimbabwe. UN Trade and Development reported that developing nations paid a record US$921 billion in net interest on public debt in 2024, a 10 percent jump from the prior year, and that 3.4 billion people live in countries where governments spend more servicing debt than on health or education combined.
AHF Country Programme Director Dr E. Chikwati called for developing countries to build stronger collective bargaining power against creditors. The organisation is pushing for a borrowers’ forum among developing nations, automatic interest-free pauses on debt servicing during public health or climate emergencies, and a proposed one percent levy on AI-sector capital investment revenues to help fund debt relief and essential services.
Zivengwa said Zimbabwe is pursuing an Arrears Clearance and Debt Resolution Roadmap alongside a Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy covering 2026 to 2030, aimed at improving debt sustainability, cutting reliance on costly domestic borrowing and lengthening repayment timelines. He warned that fiscal pressures must not be allowed to erode investment in health, education and other services central to the country’s development.
