President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia agrees to reset ties with commodity trader Trafigura

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, a businessman and cattle rancher before he entered State House, has agreed to reset his government's relationship with Trafigura Group, one of the world's largest commodity traders.

Hichilema met a Trafigura delegation led by chairman Jeremy Weir at State House in Lusaka this week. He told the delegation that his government wants a new footing with the Singapore-based trader that deepens the partnership and brings greater benefits to Zambians.

He also called for outstanding legal disputes between the government and Trafigura to be settled, saying business cannot be done in court.

Refining at home

Hichilema used the meeting to press a point he has made repeatedly to mining and trading companies: Zambia must stop exporting raw mineral concentrates and invest more in refining capacity inside the country.

Zambia is Africa's second-largest copper producer, and Hichilema's government has set a target of raising output to 3 million metric tons a year by 2031. A share of the country's copper still leaves as concentrate for processing abroad.

Trafigura, founded in 1993, sources, stores, blends and ships metals, minerals and energy products around the world and is a major buyer and shipper of African copper. Neither side has said which legal disputes are still open or what form a reset would take.

The meeting comes weeks after Trafigura appointed Chipokota Mwanawasa, who until recently served as a policy adviser to Hichilema, as its country executive director for Zambia. Mwanawasa is a son of Levy Mwanawasa, who was Zambia's president from 2002 until his death in 2008.

From ranch to State House

Hichilema, 64, made his money long before he became president in August 2021. An economist by training, he ran the Zambian arms of accounting firms Coopers & Lybrand and Grant Thornton before building interests in cattle ranching, property and tourism. He became one of Zambia's largest cattle ranchers and one of its best-known businessmen.

He lost five presidential elections, starting in 2006, before beating Edgar Lungu in 2021. Since then he has courted foreign investors, restructured Zambia's foreign debt after the country's 2020 default and pushed mining companies to expand output and processing in the country.