Zimpapers Logo

iedBusiness Reporter
ALLIED Timbers Zimbabwe is set to purchase equipment worth $20 million from Belarus through a vendor financed transaction, chief executive Dr Daniel Sithole said.

The facility is part of several loans Zimbabwe is getting from Belarus to support productive sectors, including mining and agriculture. Dr Sithole said the facility would help the ongoing recapitalisation of Allied Timbers, a 100 percent State owned company.

“It is a $20 million facility. Next month we will be going there (Belarus) to identify the equipment,” said Dr Sithole. “That’s all we need. We have the resource and all other things to operate viably.”

The recapitalisation has already commenced after obtaining lines of credit from local banks. Last year, Zimbabwe signed loan agreements with Belarus worth $150 million during the official visit by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Minsk, the Belarusian capital. Dr Sithole said the Allied Timbers was looking at recapitalising the company’s 10 estates.

“At each estate, we are looking at recapitalising along the whole value chain, starting with plantations, harvesting, saw milling and value addition. Our target is to be self-contained as a company,” he said.

The company was born out of Forestry Commission in Zimbabwe in 2002. The idea of unbundling the commission was to separate regulatory activities from the commercial activities. The intention was to enable both institutions to effectively pursue their mandates, with funds from the commercial wing supposed to assist in funding regulatory functions.

So the commercial wing gave rise to Forestry Company of Zimbabwe, later rebranded to Allied Timbers while regulatory activities were reconstituted into Forestry Commission.