Online Reporter
Business Reporter
CABS has signed a US$30 million facility with British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution, to provide targeted financial support for vital economic pillars.
Mehluli Mpofu, Managing Director at CABS, said the facility would allow the bank to empower small and medium-sized enterprises by providing access to affordable long-term trade finance and capital expenditure loans to boost productivity, improve efficiencies and create sustainable jobs.
It would also support export-focused customers in the agriculture and food manufacturing sectors, enabling them to scale operations by replacing machinery and increasing production capacity. Qualifying customers would therefore be able to improve efficiencies and strengthen their competitiveness in export markets, Mr Mpofu said.
A third strand of the support would direct resources towards essential clean energy and sustainable agriculture.
Maria Smith, Chief Investment Officer at BII, said Zimbabwe was the kind of market where development finance could have the greatest impact. “Zimbabwe is the exact kind of market where we believe development finance can have the biggest development impact. Again, it’s a market with strong entrepreneurial talent and growth potential, but accessing finance continues to be a limit to investment and productivity,” she said.
Ms Smith said the facility formed part of BII’s newly launched Zimbabwe Agricultural Finance Programme, which would bring long-term capital, trade finance and technical assistance to strengthen local institutions and expand business across the agricultural value chain. “We are here as part of an innovation at BII of launching our Zimbabwe Agricultural Finance Programme,” she said.
Mr Mpofu said CABS’s commitment to the agriculture sector was long-standing, adding that the bank had heeded government’s call to strengthen food security and grow exports by extending facilities to the sector through its business banking division.
Through business banking, CABS has provided funding to smallholder farmers and SMEs involved in horticulture, sugar production, animal husbandry and crop production. Its corporate banking division has partnered with agricultural players to increase output across agriculture and food processing.
As at 30 June 2026, CABS had provided about US$100 million worth of funding to the agricultural sector, Mr Mpofu said. He also expressed gratitude for productive sector facilities such as the Targeted Finance Facility.
The BII facility is expected to deepen CABS’s support for productive sectors as Zimbabwe seeks to boost industrial capacity, exports, food security and sustainable energy.
