FINANCE Minister Dr Bwalya Ng’andu says he has no intentions of resigning, contrary to speculations.

Addressing rumors that President Edgar Lungu had refused to accept his resignation letter, Dr Ng’andu said nothing of that sort had transpired.

“I can’t respond to rumours posted on social media. Social media can post what it wants to post but I am not going to respond to what is on social media. I can’t respond to what people create, if people want to create stories, they can create but I am not going to respond because it has nothing to do with me. That is fiction! You see, the problem in this county is that, what you are trying to do is to ask me to respond to what people create. Who are these people? But I can tell you this for a fact your sources are lying. None of the things you are saying happened,” Dr Ng’andu said.

“I have not tendered my resignation to the President, I have no intentions of resigning so I don’t know where that is coming from. I have no special challenge with my Ministry, the challenges we have are the usual challenges we have of running government which as you know can be fairly complicated but every as far as I am concerned is running normally and we are trying our best to deal with the current challenges that we are faced with.”

When asked why he missed a meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dr Ng’andu said there was nothing suspicious about him not being at State House on that day, adding that he had bills to attend to in Parliament.

“I did not miss the IMF meeting. I had meetings with the IMF on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, I was with them with my staff in the ministry but I had bills in Parliament. You know Parliament closed yesterday (Thursday) so I had only Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to finish all my bills that were outstanding. It is for that reason that I did not go to State House. But I finished my meeting with them. The Secretary to the Treasury and the permanent secretary accompanied them to State House because I was in Parliament. If people were listening, they would have heard me in Parliament talking. So there is nothing suspicious about me not being at State House. I had to be in Parliament to make sure that the bills are finished before Parliament adjourns,” said Dr Ng’andu.