THE Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) is on track to settle its debt with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), with less than $70 million now outstanding.
The original debt, which Zinara has been repaying in instalments, stood at $206 million.
Zinara’s CEO, Nkosinathi Ncube, confirmed at the company’s annual general meeting that the loan repayment is progressing well.
“We have repaid the majority of the balance and are on track to clear the loan in accordance with the contract. The balance is now less than $70 million,” he said.
According to Zinara’s 2022 annual report, cession revenue paid to its subsidiary, Infralink, for the purpose of DBSA loan repayments, closed at $11,8 billion, a 157 percent increase from funds disbursed to Infralink in 2021. This has reduced the carrying value of the $206 million DBSA loan to $110 million, down from $137 million, as efforts to extinguish the debt begin to bear fruit.
Nkosinathi Ncube
In 2022, Zinara collected $113,1 billion in inflation-adjusted collections from road user fees, a 43 percent increase from the $94,3 billion collected in 2021. This growth was driven by the easing of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.
The total collections were made up of contributions from group tolling (36 percent), vehicle licensing (31,7 percent), fuel levy (18,2 percent), and transit fees (11,5 percent). The remaining 2,6 percent was contributed by overload and abnormal load fees (1,34 percent) and other income (1,28 percent).
“The financial year 2022 presented opportunities for growth for Zinara post-Covid-19, yet it was accompanied by complex risk factors that required adept emergent strategic initiatives to remain on course,” Ncube said.
Disbursements to road authorities under ERRP2 closed at $31 billion, translating to $43,8 billion, a 21 percent increase on the previous year. Ncube said this was a significant improvement, constituting 42 percent of revenue collected.
In 2022, Zinara implemented ICT solutions to enhance revenue collection, including CCTVs, procuring power Al licences, installing automatic number plate recognition cameras along the Plumtree-Mutare route tollgates, and systems for continued analysis of variances and tolling site performance per shift.
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