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FINANCE Minister Patrick Chinamasa has urged the African Development Bank (AfDB) to focus on funding Zimbabwe’s private sector in view of the country’s arrears to the regional financier.Zimbabwe owes AfDB around $528 million in arrears while the total debt is $726 million.
Minister Chinamasa told a meeting commemorating the bank’s 50th anniversary last week that despite the country’s debt, the AfDB could assist private companies to overcome the internal liquidity situation.
“Considering that the bank group (AfDB) has some restrictions in financing public sector investments due to government’s arrears position, and that liquidity challenges have hamstrung the economy, I would like to call upon the bank group to support the private sector in Zimbabwe, which is in dire need of significant capital for retooling,” he said.
He cited the example of the Lake Harvest Project, which was the bank’s first private sector investment in the country.
“The Lake Harvest Project is a good example of how support to the private sector can bear fruit. The success of the Lake Harvest Project is justification for scaling up the bank group’s interventions in the private sector,” said Minister Chinamasa.
In 2011, AfDB announced it was giving Lake Harvest Aquaculture $8 million for a tilapia fish farming project that was expected to generate more than 900 new high-quality permanent jobs by 2015. It was also projected to contribute an estimated $33 million in government revenues over the next 10 years.
Since 1982, the regional financier has extended a total amount of $726 million to Zimbabwe through loans and grants for various projects on both the private and public sectors of the economy.
Due to the country’s arrears position, the AfDB’s support to Zimbabwe has largely consisted of support through its special windows such as the Fragile States Facility, Private Sector Window, Special Relief Fund, African Legal Support Facility and the African Water Facility.
Meanwhile, Minister Chinamasa will be taking part in deliberations at the AfDB’s 49th Annual Meetings in Kigali, Rwanda, which begin today.
The bank will be deliberating strategies and interventions it will take to take the continent on its next development agenda for the coming 50 years.
One of the key issues is the AfDB’s plans to support the private sector to drive the continent’s growth agenda. – BH24
Online Reporter