Chanda Musonda-Chiluba

Practice Areas

- Banking and Finance

- Capital Finance

- Project Finance

Career

Chanda is known to clients for her expertise in banking & finance, project finance and capital markets. Her clients have described her as possessing the ability to unpack and simplify complex transactions in a practical and business-ready manner. Chanda’s clients include local banks and financial institutions, notable international DFIs, telecoms operators including MNOs, ISPs and data center providers. Chanda also sits on the board of directors of a financial institution and a FinTech enterprise. She has been recognised in IFLR 1000 for her work in banking and finance in the Zambian market.

She is also recognised in Chambers Global 2024 as Up and Coming Global General Business Law.

Professional Memberships

Member, Law Association of Zambia.

Personal

Training attended: Executive Leadership Training – Moller Center, Cambridge, England.

Clients

Chanda’s clients include local banks and financial institutions, notable international DFIs, telecoms operators including MNOs, ISPs and data center providers.

Languages Spoken

English

Experience

-Chanda was lead Partner in a landmark transaction involving the MTN Group, one of the biggest mobile network operators in Africa. The transaction involved the hiving off and disposal of MTN Zambia’s fibre assets to a separate entity, GlobalConnect Zambia Limited (trading as Bayobab Zambia) (“Bayobab Zambia”), whose sole business would be that of providing fibre connectivity. Our firm was engaged to implement the entire separation and disposal of the fibre assets in Zambia. This involved drafting the sale/transfer agreement and ancillary agreements, such as novation deeds to effect the transfer of the fibre customers from MTN Zambia to Bayobab Zambia, collation of conditions precedents until completion of the transaction.The deal was the first of its kind in the Zambian TMT sector, pursuant to which an entity is specifically created to provide fibre connectivity exclusively, not only in Zambia but across the African continent, as the entity is also now licenced to transmit fibre capacity outside Zambia. Accordingly, the establishment of a fibre capacity entity and the transfer of fibre assets into such entity allows the transportation of digital capacity across borders, enabling businesses, individuals and communities to thrive in the digital era. Further, this separation and creation of an exclusive fibre capacity provider allows third party investors to acquire a stake in the fibre business to further accelerate the digitisation agenda in Africa.

-Chanda has acted for Zambia’s leading impact investor (the “Impact Investor”), an investment vehicle in Zambia established by the United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (“FCDO”) to specifically invest and accelerate growth in Zambian impact driven SMEs. The Impact Investor has, in turn, established a debt fund (the “Debt Fund”), which Debt Fund extends concessional loans to qualifying Zambian impact driven SMES. Chanda has assisted the Impact Investor and the Debt Fund in establishing an arrangement to regulate their affairs, including drafting of specifically tailored grant and management agreements pursuant to which the Impact Investor would fund the Debt Fund in order for the Debt Fund to provide impact finance to SMES in Zambia. The transaction is important in Zambia as it facilitate the acceleration of impact investment and financing in Zambia, which is still in its infancy. Further, the transaction aids in the establishment of an impact finance legal ecosystem in Zambia and our firm’s position as key contributors to that ecosystem.

-Chanda acted for a fintech conglomerate, with operations in several African countries (the “Client”) in respect of the Client’s proposal to establish a digital neobank micro-finance institution in Zambia.The spectrum of services included incorporation of the Zambian SPV to obtaining relevant licences and interface with key regulators in Zambia. The transaction is important for Zambia’s financial sector, as it brings to the fore important considerations for navigating Zambia’s digital/neobank system, which is still in its infancy.

-Chanda led the transaction in which the firm acted for a key Africa education fund (the “Fund”), in a financing from a Swedish development fund institution (the “DFI”). The transaction involved the finance and development of a state-of-the-art University Campus in Zambia (the “Project”). Chanda’s role involved advising the Fund in respect of all project documents, including the facility agreement and development agreement from a borrower perspective. The transaction and specifically, the funding, has a positive social impact in terms of spurring significant growth in Zambia’s education sector.

Awards

Education