Zim to benefit in AfDB’s push to protect natural resources
BUSINESS REPORTER
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has established a UA 2m project to help six African countries including Zimbabwe benefit from its natural resources.
The six countries set to benefit from the Governing Natural Resource Outflows for Enhanced Economic Resilience in Fragile and Transitional Countries (GONAT) facility are Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.
GONAT seeks to build national capacity for governing natural resource outflows by addressing the illicit natural resources trade, and resource-backed loans, in order to strengthen domestic resource mobilisation debt sustainability and overall economic resilience in selected fragile and transitional resource-rich African countries, AfDB said.
“In the focal countries, the project will strengthen state capacity for governing natural resource outflows, build economic resilience through enhanced DRM, and position the AfDB as a strong advocate and influencer in promoting inclusive, sustainable development,” it said.
AfDB said the project aims to enhance overall economic resilience through increased domestic resource mobilisation and debt sustainability in the target countries by building the capacity of government institutions to combat the illicit trade in Africa’s natural resources through strengthening national capacity to analyse, track and reduce illicit natural resource outflows.
It also aims at optimising the socio-economic returns from resource-backed loans by improving the domestic capacity for their analysis, monitoring and governance.
The multinational project is funded through AfDB Transitional Support Facility Pillar III resources under ADF-15.
It is estimated that illicit trade in Africa’s natural resources is robbing the continent of US$120bn annually.
