Govt moves to sanitise RBZ balance sheet

Business Reporter—

Government has issued Treasury Bills with a total nominal value of $34 million in settlement of a principal amount owed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to the country’s biggest platinum miner, Zimplats.Zimplats was owed a principal amount of $34 million by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

As previously reported, Government of Zimbabwe promulgated the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Debt Assumption) Act in August 2015.

That Act provided for the assumption by the State of certain debts incurred by RBZ, subject to those debts having been validated and reconciled by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.

The amount owed by the RBZ to Zimplats was listed in the Act as one of the debts which was to be assumed by the State, subject to the validation and reconciliation of the debt by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.

“Zimplats wishes to announce that the $34 million has been validated and reconciled by the Government of Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and that the Government of Zimbabwe has now issued to the operating subsidiary three treasury bills with a total nominal value of $34 million in settlement of the principal amount owed by the RBZ,” said Zimplats in a statement yesterday.

Government in 2014 issued Treasury Bills worth $103 million to repay part of the central bank’s debt to banks and farmers which accumulated during the pre-dollarisation period.

The central bank had a $1,35 billion debt, due mostly to gold miners, banks and exporters after RBZ during the tenure of the then Governor Dr Gideon Gono took control of their foreign currency accounts. Government as part of its efforts to sanitise the RBZ’s balance sheet securitised the RBZ debt. The securitisation of that debt meant that Government took over assets underlying that debt, which is now secured.

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has since started repayment of the RBZ debt through issuance of debt instruments such as Treasury Bills to banks and other creditors.