Omega Ukama 
ZIMBABWE is up-to-date with repayment of loans of about $8 billion extended to it by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in the past 22 years, The Financial Gazette has learnt.
Zimbabwe’s debt to Afreximbank surged by 66 percent to US$1,25 billion in May this year after government incurred a US$500 million loan facility from the bank to supply the interbank foreign currency market. The investment-starved southern African country has over the past few years used its natural resources ― including gold and tobacco ― to secure capital from Afreximbank.
Andrew Masuwa, Afreximbank’s director of business development, told delegates attending the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe’s Winter School and Investor Attraction Conference in South Africa that the regional lender was pleased with the country’s performance.
“Afreximbank has stood with Zimbabwe from the first signs of economic difficulties that the country was facing and since1997, the bank has disbursed a cumulative $8 billion to Zimbabwe,” he said.
“We continue to support the country primarily because we see immense hope that the country presents. Additionally, we also build structures that are in line with our structure trade finance approach as an institution. This has helped significantly to make sure that have a line of sight on the cash flows in each and every sector that we support and to this point, we have zero non-performing loans from the country, we have recovered every penny that has been disbursed,” he said.
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