The United States Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has removed two State-owned banks from the list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, giving room for US companies and individuals to do transactions with the entities.
BY BUSINESS REPORTER
In a statement on Wednesday, OFAC said it was removing “Zimbabwe General Licence 1” from the Zimbabwe page, which had been in place since April 24, 2013, that authorised all transactions involving Agribank and the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ).
“Following today’s removal of Agribank and IDBZ from the List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, a licence is no longer required to engage in transactions with those entities,” the US Treasury said.
Agribank chief executive officer Sam Malaba welcomed the removal of the bank from the sanctions list, as the financial institution had been lobbying for that for quite some time.
“The removal is welcome and will open new avenues to raise finance and also to work with development partners,” he said.
The US Treasury also removed from the list the late national heroes Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Stanley Sakupwanya, former Zanu PF Harare provincial chairman the late Amos Midzi and Ndlovu Motorways.
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Rose Ndlovu, widow of national hero, Sikhanyiso, was also removed from the list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons.
As part of its enforcement efforts, OFAC publishes a list of individuals and companies owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, targeted countries.
It also lists individuals, groups, and entities, such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers, designated under programmes that are not country-specific.
Collectively, such individuals and companies are called Specially Designated Nationals.
Their assets are blocked and US citizens are generally prohibited from dealing with them.
