Zimbabwes national infrastructure gets new lease of life from Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ)
Charles Chikaura, IDBZ CEO has disclosed that his bank has so far disbursed $169.3mn for infrastruture rehabilitation across various sectors in Zimbabwe.
Some of the initiatives which have been carried out by the bank include availing resources to various municipalities for the rehabilitation of water and sewer projects. Currently the bank is involved in rehabilitation of water and sewer projects for the city of Bulawayo, Marondera, Gwanda and Bindura, among others.
"A total of $53mn has been disbursed on water and sewer and dams and irrigation projects, " Chikaura says.
Harare International Airport
He disclosed other initiatives which include the rehabilitation of the Harare International Airport and the completion of the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Airport.To date a total of $61mn has been disbursed towards transport projects.
In the energy sector, the bank is working closely with the Zimbabwe Power Company in financing the rehabilitation of Hwange and Kariba Power Stations and a total of $25mn has been disbursed.
On the ICT sector, IDBZ is involved in the rehabilitation of broadcasting transmission network being undertaken by Transmedia Zimbabwe and the Harare-Mutare and Harare-Bulawayo-Beitbridge FibreOptic projects being implemented by Tel-One Pvt Ltd. A total of $9.3mn has been disbursed towards the sector to date.
Housing projects
On the housing sector, IDBZ is funding a number of projects which include Graniteside Park flats in partnership with the City of Harare and Willowvale flats and other housing projects across the country with the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities.
A total of $21mn has been disbursed to the sector which also includes accomodation structures for tertiary institutions such as Universities.
However, despite the progress being made in rehabilitating delapidated infrastructure, Chikaura cautioned that the problematic low absorption rate of funds availed by government to projects is due to inadequate project planning and preparation, material supply bottlenecks, institutional capacity constraints in terms of understaffing, inadequate skills, lack of equipment and other material resources amongst other factors.
According to Chikaura, Zimbabwe's infrastructure finance deficit currently stands at $14.2bn.
By Wallace Mawire
