African Development Bank to help raise US$3.5 billion to compensate white Zimbabwe farmers

The African Development Bank plans to help Zimbabwe raise US$3.5 billion needed to compensate white farmers evicted from their land more than two decades ago, a condition set by the nation’s biggest creditors before they accept a proposed debt-clearance programme.

“We are currently working with the Minister of Finance and the government of Zimbabwe to develop a financial instrument that could potentially be useful,” Akinwumi Adesina, the bank’s president, told reporters in the capital, Harare, yesterday. 

“It will help leverage the capital markets to fund the compensation, without adding debt to Zimbabwe.”

The southern African nation concluded a fourth round of talks with creditors yesterday on the clearance of US$17 billion it owes to multilateral lenders, including the World Bank and Paris Club. More discussions are planned after elections scheduled for later this year. 

Under an accord signed in 2020, the government agreed to compensate white farmers whose land was seized by state-backed militants, but it has repeatedly missed the repayment deadlines. 

While it initially envisioned paying the farmers over 20 years, that period has now been reduced to a decade, according to Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube. – Bloomberg

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