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Business Reporter
GOVERNMENT should capitalise national development finance institutions (DFIs) and de-risk infrastructure projects to crowd in private capital and bridge critical funding gaps across the energy, transport, water and special economic zones (SEZs) sectors, a senior executive has said.
Speaking at a plenary session on infrastructure at the Zimbabwe Industrialisation Conference and Expo (ZICE 2026) in Harare last week, Infrastructure and Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) chief executive officer Mr Willing Zvirevo said while the Government acknowledges the vital role of the private sector, structural bottlenecks continue to hinder capital mobilisation.
Highlighting findings from research by African Economic Development Strategies (AEDS), Mr Zvirevo noted that State institutions tasked with driving development remain undercapitalised.
“Strategic institutions that are supposed to catalyse development are not adequately capitalised. So, there is a compelling case for the Government to consider using various tools to strengthen the balance sheets of existing national development finance institutions so that they can leverage their balance sheets to attract capital at scale,” Mr Zvirevo said.
Zimbabwe’s network of national DFIs—including the IDBZ, the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC Holdings) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Corporation (SMEDCO)—plays a pivotal statutory role in underwriting long-term economic expansion across
Mr Zvirevo said capitalisation should include directly channelling state resources through its own development finance arms.
Beyond balance sheet constraints, Mr Zvirevo pointed out that major state utilities—including national power utility ZESA Holdings and the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA)—face a severe shortage of bankable projects.
“There is a general lack of investment-ready projects that are adequately prepared and packaged to meet the requirements of investors and lenders,” said Mr Zvirevo.
To unlock long-term private financing, Mr Zvirevo urged policymakers to prioritise project preparation and blended finance structures.
“In my view, the most important conversation is how we can utilise the limited public resources to catalyse private sector investment into infrastructure. The first one is for investment in project preparation so that investors have a wide selection of bankable projects to choose from.
“The second one is using public resources to co-finance high-impact projects alongside the private sector,” Mr Zvirevo added.
The IDBZ boss noted that co-financing, including public-private partnerships, serves as a primary tool for de-risking infrastructure assets, making them attractive to private investors who increasingly favour public-private partnership (PPP) models that facilitate risk sharing.
