Afreximbank to arrange up to $1.5b for investment promotion in Zimbabwe

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) will arrange between $1 billion and $1.5 billion of funded and guarantee facilities to support businesses interested in investing in Zimbabwe, Dr. Benedict Oramah, President of the Bank, has announced. Speaking on Tuesday during a special session on “Doing Business in Zimbabwe” at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Dr. Oramah indicated that the facilities would be arranged under ZimOpen, an inward investment support facility which Afreximbank was putting in place in collaboration with the Government of Zimbabwe.
Dr. Oramah told the session, chaired by President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe, that ZimOpen was aimed at de-risking eligible inward investment into Zimbabwe, catalysing trade finance inflows and increasing the availability of U.S. dollar liquidity in order to assure investors of more predictability in exit possibilities and terms.
“As Zimbabwe opens its doors to business once again, many entrepreneurs and potential investors seem eager to join the party, but their enthusiasm is often constrained by risk considerations,” he stated. “Afreximbank is working on a vast programme of guarantees which would mitigate the investment and country risks.”
The President said that Afreximbank came with strong credentials regarding Zimbabwe, noting that, over the past 20 years, the Bank had disbursed more than $7 billion to Zimbabwean entities in the public and private sectors without suffering any credit losses.
Earlier, President Mnangagwa made a presentation on Zimbabwe’s social and economic development agenda and discussed initiatives the government was taking in order to promote investments in the country.
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