World Bank Team Visits Zimbabwe
A DELEGATION of the World Bank group's private sector lending arm will arrive in Zimbabwe on Wednesday evening for a series of meetings with government, business leaders and the bankers association, as the country seeks long-term, inexpensive funding for its undercapitalised firms.
Sources close to the developments said International Finance Corporation director Cheik Oumar Seydi and senior manager Saleem Karimjee will meet finance minister Patrick Chinamasa in Harare before meeting business leaders and bankers to explore funding opportunities.
"The mission will be in the country between June 10 and 12. They will meet with business leaders and identify sectors where the IFC can extend funding to," a source who declined to be identified as he is not authorised to speak for the delegation, said.
Zimbabwe has since June 2013, however, undertaken an IMF staff monitored programme (SMP), an informal and flexible instrument for dialogue between the Fund staff and a member country on its economic policies. The SMP does not entail funding support.
However, implementation of the SMP has been mixed, with government struggling to rein in its wage bill which currently gobbles up as much as two-thirds of its total revenue- a key aspect of the programme.