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Municipal Reporter
The African Development Bank and African Export Import Bank are set to construct their regional offices in Harare and Government has requested land valued at more than $600 000 from Harare City Council. According to recent minutes of the Finance and Development Committee, acting finance director Mr Regis Makwembere, notified councillors on a request to transfer two stands to Government in exchange for State land of equivalent value with all costs pertaining to survey and transfer.

“The stands are measured at 1,49 hectares and 1,2 hectares, respectively and situated at the corner of Enterprise Road and Churchill Avenue East. The applicants intended to use the stands to develop Afreximbank and AfDB regional offices.

“The current open market prices for stand 19526 and 19527 Harare Township were $375 000 and $300 000, respectively,” read the minutes. AfDB has been supporting the economic turnaround necessary to reposition Zimbabwe as a major productive centre in the Southern African region.

The bank is engaged in a number of initiatives in the country, which include supporting the external debt and arrears clearance process, in addition to infrastructure rehabilitation in the energy, water and sanitation sectors through the ZimFund.

The AfDB was designated to manage the ZimFund with endorsement from Government, the donor community and the United Nations. In April this year, AfDB approved a $25 million Trade Finance Line of Credit facility to the Central Africa Building Society (CABS) of Zimbabwe .

The medium-term facility will support the expansion of CABS’ operations as a provider of trade finance to local firms, and small-to-medium size enterprises within Zimbabwe. The African Export Import Bank was established in October 1993 by African governments, the AfDB, private and institutional investors for the purpose of financing, promoting and expanding intra-African and extra-African trade.