Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) AfDB promises to help Zimbabwe

COMMENT - The African Development Bank is one of the 9 multilateral financial institutions to whom the US Secretary of the Treasury was directed to order a veto on the rescheduling or extension of any loans to the government of Zimbabwe. (See ZDERA section 3 - ZDERA is still law and has not been retracted).

AfDB promises to help Zimbabwe
Business Day/TZG reporters
Sat, 16 May 2009 08:06:00 +0000

THE African Development Bank (AfDB) is prepared to give budgetary support to Zimbabwe, which has mainly relied on SA for financial assistance.

Donald Kaberuka, the bank's president, has urged the international community also to come to Zimbabwe's aid to help it to rebuild its economy.

Speaking at the AfDB's annual meeting in Dakar, Senegal, Kaberuka was emphatic that assistance would only be forthcoming if Zimbabwe honoured its
commitments to persist with the inclusive Government.

The bank "welcomed the recent evolution in Zimbabwe" and was encouraged by the global political agreement reached there, Kaberuka said. He also said
the parties should stick to it and implement it.

The AfDB already has a delegation in Harare and has started providing technical support and humanitarian aid to the country.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who also attended the bank's meeting , said Zimbabwe's budget deficit could have disastrous consequences
for the inclusive Government.

Biti said Zimbabwe could become a second Somalia if the country did not get financial assistance.

Zimbabwe needed $100m a month to meet its budgetary commitments, but collected only 20% of its requirements through the fiscus.

So far, the only budgetary assistance has come from SA, though other countries in the Southern African Development Community have made verbal
commitments.

Lesetja Kganyago, the director-general of SA's Treasury, said there had been discussions on helping Zimbabwe, with encouraging calls from the bank's governors . But Zimbabwe still needed to regularise its affairs with the International Monetary Fund.

--Business Day/TZG

Labels: AfDB, SANCTIONS, ZDERA, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 3:08 PM