President Mnangagwa yesterday negotiated a fresh financial
package for Zimbabwe from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) after
meeting the bank’s president, Professor Benedict Okey Oramah.
The President met Prof Oramah on the sidelines of the Tokyo
International Conference on African Development (TICAD) underway here.
Speaking to Zimbabwean journalists after his meeting with
the President, Prof Oramah said Afreximbank had agreed in principle to provide
Zimbabwe with a financial injection for emergency food imports as well as a
separate kitty for infrastructure development.
“Those are the kinds of things we discussed (financial
package) especially to be able to support food imports and also to enable the
development of certain infrastructure, including irrigation that will help
manage the weather crises in the future,” Prof
Oramah.
Asked on the amount of money that Afreximbank will assist
Zimbabwe with, Prof Oramah said: “We are still working out the details, so they
will also go back and present us the actual requirements.
“We have a product that we call the food emergency
contingency financing facility which we make available to African countries to
enable them to manage weather uncertainties. This is the product we are
expecting to be made available to Zimbabwe.”
Prof Oramah said in addition to food imports and infrastructure
development, the continental trade finance organisation will avail another
kitty to Zimbabwe for the country’s industries.
“We also discussed elements of supporting infrastructure,
including irrigation. Those are going to be worked out.
“There is also manufacturing which His Excellency said the
Government would like to promote to grow their industries,” he said.
“There was a facility we used to have with Zimbabwe which
was to the amount of US$300 million, which has expired, so the Government has
asked if we can look at it again and make it available.”
He said following his audience with President Mnangagwa,
follow-up engagements will be made with Finance and Economic Development
Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr
John Mangudya.
“We have agreed that we will be meeting with the Minister
of Finance for further discussions and also with the Governor of the Reserve of
Bank to look at the elements of intervention that will come to Zimbabwe,” he said.
Discussions between President Mnangagwa and Prof Oramah
also centred on Zimbabwe’s ongoing economic reforms under the Transitional
Stabilisation Programme (TSP).
Prof Oramah said he appreciated Zimbabwe’s efforts in
restructuring its economy.
“We had a lot to talk about. We reviewed the collaboration
and reforms going on in Zimbabwe in the areas of fiscal reforms and the
monetary policy and also the exchange reforms that are going on. We also
reviewed our plans for the future of the country,” he said.
Afreximbank has assisted Zimbabwe with several financial
packages for its economic recovery and enjoys sound relations with Harare.
Zimbabwe is a shareholder of Afreximbank and therefore
enjoys benefits from the continental trade finance institution. Herald
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