Zambia to sign deal for $1.5 bn in US health funding

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Zambia announced Tuesday it will sign this week a deal for 1.5 billion in US health funding that had stalled over disagreements over mineral rights and the sharing of patient data.

Washington has been pursuing one-on-one health aid deals with various African countries after President Donald Trump shut down the USAID agency last year.

The government of copper-rich Zambia said in May its talks on such a deal had stalled over "unacceptable" terms including "the insistence on preferential treatment of US companies over Zambia's critical minerals."

However health minister Roma Chilengi said the adjusted memorandum of understanding (MoU) to be signed on Thursday had never included provisions over minerals.

"I want to be categorical, as ministry of health we never saw any MoU that spoke of critical minerals," Chilengi said.

The deal amounts to $3.6 billion in funding from both the US and Zambian governments over five years, he said.

When asked how much the United States would contribute, Chilengi said: "It is $1.5 billion."

The MoU had been revised to address Zambian objections over the sharing of data, intellectual property and patient specimens, he said.

Zambia would not be obliged to share any specimens and "concerns around individual patient data are completely removed", he said.

More than a dozen countries have signed the health aid deals with Washington, including Rwanda, Uganda, Lesotho and Eswatini.

Zimbabwe halted its negotiations saying the MoU "compromises and undermines the sovereignty and independence of Zimbabwe".

The US embassy announced last month that US-supported health programmes in Zimbabwe would conclude at the end of September.