The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has released yet another list of more than 750 companies which have been allocated over half a billion US dollars from the foreign currency auction system since its inception in June last year.
Leading the pack is Cangrow Trading (Pvt) Ltd, which got just over 12 million United States dollars, followed by Stanbic Investor Services with over 11 million US dollars.
Other firms that make the top 10 are BLUE RIBBON FOODS LTD, SURFACE WILMAR PVT LTD, NATIONAL FOODS LIMITED, VARUN BEVERAGES ZIMBABWE PVT LTD 7, SABLE CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES LIMITED, ZIMBABWEAN BRANDS, WILLOWTON GROUP (ZIMBABWE) and WINDMILL (PVT) LTD.
The list shows that a combination of big corporates and mid-sized firms were the beneficiaries of the forex allotments with indications of a surge in capacity utilisation and local products availability, owing to increased access of foreign currency to import critical raw materials and capital equipment.
Meanwhile, after this Tuesday’s trading on the auction system, another 35 million US dollars was allocated to companies on both the SMEs and main auction with the Zimbabwe dollar marginally weakening to 84.11 to the greenback.
The bulk of the allotted funds went towards the purchase of raw materials at just over 12,8 million, while machinery and equipment accounted for over 7,5 million United States dollars.
The introduction of the auction system was part of economic reforms implemented by Government to ease foreign currency challenges which were threatening to choke economic recovery. – ZBC
