Zambia is set to sign a Sh194 billion health financing agreement with the United States after resolving a dispute over the amount of medical data Lusaka would be required to share with Washington under the deal.
Health Minister Roma Chilengi said the agreement, which had been held up by concerns over data privacy, will be signed on Thursday, paving the way for the US to provide $1.5 billion in health funding over five years.
"The government is pleased to announce that it will sign the agreement ... on Thursday," Chilengi said.
Under the arrangement, the United States will provide $1.5 billion towards Zambia's health programmes, while the Zambian government is expected to spend $2.1 billion over the same five-year period.
The agreement follows months of discussions after negotiations stalled earlier this year over Zambia's concerns about the protection of medical information.
A separate point of disagreement had also centred on an attempt by the US to link the health funding to access to critical minerals, although Zambia has now said the health pact does not contain such a condition.
Chilengi said the data-sharing requirements had been narrowed to information needed to track and assess programmes supported by US funding.
He said a provision that could have required Zambia to send patient medical specimens to the United States when requested had been removed from the final agreement.
The change addresses one of the key concerns raised by Zambia and other African countries over health agreements being pursued by Washington.
The United States remains a major source of funding for HIV/AIDS, malaria and other public health programmes in Zambia, a copper-producing country in Southern Africa.
African governments have, however, raised concerns about demands for broad access to health information as part of agreements tied to US health assistance.
On the question of critical minerals, Chilengi said the issue was not part of the health agreement.
"There is no mention of critical minerals" in the health pact, he said.
He also said he was not aware of a separate agreement on critical minerals being negotiated between Zambia and the United States.
Zambia's agreement is part of a wider shift in the way the Trump administration is approaching US foreign health assistance, with Washington seeking arrangements that would eventually see recipient countries rely less on aid and take greater responsibility for financing their own health systems.
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are among the African countries that have already signed similar health agreements with the United States.
Not all countries have accepted the terms. Ghana and Zimbabwe rejected proposed deals over concerns linked to demands for access to health data.
For Zambia, the resolution of the data dispute clears the way for the health pact to move ahead, with the government now expected to formally sign the agreement on Thursday.