Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema told the new National Assembly on 9 October that the 2027 budget would contain financing measures the country had “never seen before”, along with laws to ease investment inflows. Opening the first session of the 14th parliament, he called targets of 3 million tonnes of copper a year, 10,000 megawatts of power and 10 million tonnes of maize “within reach”, citing a maize harvest that rose from 2.1 to 5.1 million tonnes this year. The speech sets out an investment-led programme for his second term. Investors will look for detail on how the budget is financed while Zambia negotiates a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.