Treasury cushions line ministries

Business Editor
TREASURY has disbursed $2,5 billion to Government ministries and departments as part of interventions to mitigate against the impact of Covid-19 on service delivery.

Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, revealed this during his virtual address to the 55th Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the 46th Annual Meetings of the African Development Fund, which ended Thursday.

He told delegates that the country remains under lockdown following the outbreak of the deadly pandemic which has so far claimed 155 lives in Zimbabwe.

Covid-19 has also adversely affected production, trade and tourism as a result of travel restrictions imposed by many countries.

The pandemic has also impacted negatively on public service delivery as frontline workers now need more resources than before to safeguard them against infection.

“To this end, direct support amounting to ZWL$2,5 billion went to various ministries/departments,” said Prof Ncube.

He said the funding was directed towards paying Covid-19 risk allowances, additional employment costs, capacity building and training of health personnel, procurement of health and laboratory equipment including consumables, procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), rehabilitation and construction of isolation centres, drilling of boreholes and production of face masks and sanitisers by tertiary institutions.

Prof Ncube said in line with regional bank’s indaba under the theme: “Building Resilience for a Post-Covid-19 Africa”. The Government had also availed an ZWL$18,2 billion Stimulus Package which is 28,6 percent of the 2020 National Budget.

The package is meant to assist companies to boost production across all sectors of the economy as well as improve health facilities.

The package was allocated as follows: agriculture sector support ($6,1 million), working capital fund for industry ($3 billion), mining sector facility ($1 billion), SME support fund ($0,5 billion), tourism support fund ($0,5 billion), liquidity from statutory reserves ($2 billion), health sector support fund ($1 billion), broad relief measures ($1,5 billion), Covid-19 cash transfer ($2,4 billion) as well as arts and sport grant ($0,2 billion).