happiness Chikwanha
Business Writer
A syndicate of South African banks has availed part of the US$300 million for the redevelopment of Beitbridge Border Post, Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube tweeted over the weekend.
He said the development shows “confidence in the Zimbabwe economy, and future growth in regional trade activity”.
Of the total amount, US$130 million came from FirstRand’s Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) unit, Standard Bank, Absa Group and Nedbank Group.
It also includes a $65 million development-finance institution tranche from African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, according to a media article by RMB.
Beitbridge border post modernisation project involves the upgrade and rehabilitation of the Zimbabwean side of the Beitbridge border post, under a 17-and-a-half-year concession granted by the Zimbabwean government to La Frontiere.
According to RMB, the economic impact of the transaction is significant, both to those companies that use the border to trade, and the communities surrounding the border.
In addition to upgrading the ageing infrastructure at the border post itself, the concession also requires the delivery of social infrastructure to the adjacent town of Beitbridge, including a water treatment plant, housing and a fire station.
The Beitbridge border post is the busiest border post in Southern Africa, connecting SA to Zimbabwe and providing a key access point for trade with countries further to the north.
This border has been characterised by long waiting periods for trucks, sometimes days, before they got through the border, often travelling hundreds of kilometres to a different border to avoid the long queues. As a result, the border post lost traffic over time.
This redevelopment of the border post will make it more efficient, leading to increased regional trade, benefiting the Zimbabwe economy and fiscus, and SA’s economy indirectly, RMB said.
Bongani Ndlovu