Govt, OPEC sign $20m education fund facility

Business Reporter
GOVERNMENT and the OPEC Fund for International Development have signed a $20 million First Education Project Facility for the construction of 17 schools and the provision of relevant equipment in the rural areas countrywide. The facility is meant for the construction of 12 primary and five secondary schools in rural areas in eight provinces.

The fund will also provide relevant equipment and furniture and standard teachers’ houses for the targeted schools. Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa and OFID director general Mr Suleiman J Al-Herbish signed the facility on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Lima, Peru.

“The Government of Zimbabwe is grateful to the OPEC Fund for International Development for the loan facility and looks forward to increased cooperation,” said Minister Chinamasa. “The resources will go a long way in complementing Government efforts in social development,” he said.

Terms of the facility are that the $20 million loan will have a 20-year tenure, with 15 years repayment period and five years grace period at 1,5 percent per annum interest rate.

Service charges will be at 1 percent per annum. Government will contribute $2 million as co-finance to the project. OFID is a multilateral development finance institution established in 1976 by the Member Countries of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Its mandate is to reinforce financial cooperation between OPEC Member Countries and other developing countries by providing financial support for socio-economic development. Zimbabwe last week secured the support of the international finance institutions who adopted the country’s debt resolution strategy.

International bilateral and multilateral creditors endorsed Zimbabwe’s strategy to clear arrears by April next year and will develop a new Comprehensive Country Financing Programme that attracts long term financing to promote growth and debt sustainability.

The new Comprehensive Country Financing Programme will be supported by the three International Finance Institutions (IFIs); namely the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB). The strategy was presented by Government on Thursday at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings.