Zimbabwe hasn’t received any concrete commitments of financial support from 10 nations it appealed to for help in its long-standing efforts to clear debt arrears.
“Some of them are very warm, some of them not so warm,” Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said in an interview in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where he was attending the annual meetings of the African Development Bank. “You will get a varied response.”
He recently wrote to Algeria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Africa, United Arab Emirates and the UK, asking them to consider providing bridge finance totaling $2.6 billion to help repay debts owed to multilateral lenders including the World Bank, European Investment Bank and the AfDB.
The southern African nation has a total debt pile of $21 billion that’s kept it locked out of global financial markets since it defaulted in 1999. Part of the problem in getting bridge financing is that seven of the countries he approached are already owed money by Zimbabwe, including China and Germany. Brazil is unwilling to contribute, people familiar with the situation have told Bloomberg previously.
Given the large sum of funding sought it was unlikely that a single nation will act as sponsor. “It has to be several countries,” Ncube said. “I see at least three countries.”
Zimbabwe may also look to raise other money to repay debt, including through asset sales, he added without providing details. It has been angling for an International Monetary Fund staff-monitored program to help restore its standing with international creditors — so far without success.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2022 asked Akinwumi Adesina, the outgoing AfDB president and Mozambique’s former leader Joaquim Chissano to help steer negotiations with creditors. Ncube said he hopes that the AfDB will continue to play a central role in the talks under its incoming head Sidi Ould Tah, who “knows our issues as a country.”
Bloomberg
