BUSINESS REPORTER
A high-powered delegation from the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) arrives in Zimbabwe on Tuesday on a three-day working visit where it will hold talks on the bank’s support to the country’s arrears clearance programme.
The delegation, led by the bank’s acting vice president for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Yacine Fal, will be in Zimbabwe from April 5 to 8.
The AfDB team includes Prof. Kevin Chika Urama, acting chief economist and vice president for the Economic Governance and Knowledge Management Complex; director general for the Southern Africa region, Leila Mokaddem; deputy director general Kennedy Mbekeani, Martha Phiri, director of the Bank’s Human Capital, Youth and Skills Department, and Jean-Guy Afrika, AfDB’s acting director for the Regional Integration Coordination Office.
“…The delegation will meet President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and other members of government. Talks will focus on bank support to Zimbabwe’s arrears clearance,” AfDB said in a statement.
“The team will also meet executives of the African Capacity Building Foundation, as well as private sector and various non-regional partners.”
As at the end of September 2021, Zimbabwe had a total external debt of US$13.191bn of which US$6.570bn were arrears.
Of the public external debt, US$5.45bn is owed to bilateral creditors, US$2.67bn to multilateral creditors, US$221m to creditors under the 2015 RBZ Debt Assumption Act and US$4.9bn is RBZ’s balance sheet external debt.
The Abidjan-headquartered banking group currently supports 15 initiatives in Zimbabwe valued at $176 million. These include the rehabilitation of infrastructure in the energy, water and sanitation sectors, financed through resources from the Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund (the ZimFund), created by donors in 2010 to support Zimbabwe’s priority recovery activities.
The AfDB was designated to manage the ZimFund.
The AfDB team is currently in Botswana on a two-day visit in the first leg of its trip to Southern Africa.
In Botswana, the team will meet with several government and industry leaders, including the deputy minister of Finance Olesitse Masimega. Their discussions will centre on the Bank’s support to Botswana’s economic transformation agenda and a post-Covid-19 economic recovery. AfDB has provided US$137m in loans to support Botswana’s economic recovery from the pandemic.
The delegation will also hold talks with Sadc deputy executive secretary for Regional Integration, Thembinkosi Mhlongo, among others.
AfDB’s active portfolio in Botswana amounts to US$223m.
The visit underscores AfDB’s firm commitment to the southern African region’s growth prospects and to deepen engagement with SADC at the strategic and technical levels, Fal said.
“We will take stock of ongoing regional integration efforts. We need to continue to encourage the free flow of goods and services across our borders, removal of tariff barriers and to scale up regional value chains,” Fal said.
