Zimbabwe Rising Pubic Debt: How to Avoid a Stern Crisis?

Zimbabwe’s debt has been considered unsustainable from within and outside the country. Public debt management is the backbone of any sovereign debt management entity. It is backed by a robust, well-functioning and user-friendly system that allows governments to strengthen their debt management environment. This manuscript aims to significantly contribute to the extant literature on aspects that a nation like Zimbabwe requires to bail itself from the prolonged public debt. Ideas and evidence will have derived from research findings and lesson and experiences from other governments and organisation. The manuscript will also bring out the theoretical aspect that can be practical applied to have a sound public debt management. The discussion will contain study findings and literature from past and present studies on public debt management systems. The target audience will be leaders of public enterprises, government officials from various ministry, the national budget workforce or taskforce, finance ministry and other business players that either directly or indirectly linked to national planning for debt management and economic strategies. Zimbabwe as nation have gone through many transformative stages since independence and some of the public debt have inherited from the colonial government. The study concludes that it is fundamental for a debt management system to meet the debt management office's evolving needs, while at the same time differentiating among functions and coverage that are mandatory, relevant, and desirable. This analysis derived from past and present studies suggests that current systems can handle the critical functions and instruments of debt management entities. However, if the nature of respondents' debt portfolios evolves over time, system limitations may present challenges. One clear takeaway is that those that are directly involved in national public debt management should consider the ability of their debt management system to interact with external (for example, financial management information system) information technology platforms as an essential characteristic of their information ecosystem.