Agribank restructuring technical committee conducts meetings

conducting its meetings in order to produce documents necessary for the exercise.
Agribank is one of the 10 public entities which Government prioritised for privatisation and commercialisation under the first phase of the restructuring exercise aimed at enhancing operational efficiency in State entities.
“The recommended restructuring strategy is the partial privatisation of Agribank through private placement of 49 percent shareholding to a strategic partner, while the remaining 51 percent will be retained by Government. Consideration will be given to the participation of farmer organisations,” reads part of the 2011 progress report on the restructuring exercise by the Ministry of State Enterprises and Parastatals.
In May this year, Government approved Agribank’s restructuring exercise.
Two sub-committees have since been formed to deal with specific specialised issues.
“To this end, two sub-committees, namely the operations and finance and the legal sub-committee, have been formed to deal with specific specialised issues. Meetings of the sub-committees are under way and they shall report their resolutions to the main committee.”
Against this background, State Enterprises and Restructuring Agency (Sera) has prepared the terms of reference for the engagement of financial and legal advisors, which were discussed at the technical committee meeting last week.
It is hoped that in the next few weeks, the technical committee will meet the State Procurement Board to discuss the procedures for engaging advisors and the bidding process.
The technical committee comprises officials from Agribank, Ministries of Finance and Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Justice and Legal Affairs, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the Attorney General’s Office, and Sera.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of State Enterprises and Parastatals has said the restructuring process of the identified public entities that include the Cold Storage Company, NetOne, National Railways of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Power Company has been slow, except for the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe and Zisco (now NewZim Steel) partly due to lack of commitment from the line ministries and management of the enterprises.
The Ministry of State Enterprises and Parastatals expressed concern over the slow pace of the programme despite approval of the framework by Government last year.