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Walter Muchinguri in BULAWAYO
The Africa Export-Import Bank is working on a second Zimbabwe Economic Trade Revival Facility (ZETREF) that will be funded to the tune $50 million to $100 million.

The bank’s regional manager for Southern Africa, Mr Gift Simwaka, said that the loans will be competitively priced and the premiums will be single digits.

The tenor of the loans will depend on the amounts involved and the specific needs of industry.

He said unlike the previous case where some companies did not get the whole amount that they applied for, companies will be given loans that they have applied for.

“If a company applies for $5 million it should be able to get it,” said Mr Simwaka.

He said that they have already agreed with Government for a needs assessment exercise for local companies in order to get an appreciation of what they require.

“This tour is one of the ways that Government is collecting that information. When we return to Harare I will be holding discussions with the Ministries of Industry and Commerce, SMEs and Finance and Economic Development,” he said.

Mr Simwaka was speaking during a tour of United Refineries organised by the Office of the President and Cabinet for diplomats and representatives of regional and continental banks.

ZETREF was initially launched in 2010 to recapitalise local industries and was funded to the tune of $70 million.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president and United Refineries chief executive Mr Busisa Moyo said funding should be allocated on a value chain basis as opposed to just the manufacturing company.

“We should not look at the manufacturing companies alone but the whole support chain right down to the primary producer,” he said.

Mr Moyo said as a company they have already started doing this by contracting 166 farmers to produce soya bean as a way of demonstrating to financiers how practical it is to fund the whole value chain.

He added that at CZI level they had revived the standing committee on agri-business which is headed by Mr Kumbirai Katsande which will pay special attention to issues that deal with value chains.

Senior Political Director in the Office of the President and Cabinet Ambassador Mary Mubi said that value chain was important especially for the growth of the SME sector.

“We need to ensure that we focus more on value chain growth to encourage local companies to buy from SMEs within the country as opposed to importing,” she said.