AGRIBANK is seeking new credit facilities from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) taking advantage of its removal from the sanctions list which prevented it from getting support from international financial institutions.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA
Agribank chief executive officer Somkhosi Malaba told NewsDay on the sidelines of the bank’s annual general meeting on Monday that securing funds would hinge on government repaying its arrears to these partners.
“We want to talk to development partners because we believe that there are a lot of them that are financing smallholder agriculture in Zimbabwe. We would like to partner with them, and we are talking to a number of them. We also want to raise lines of credit and we hope, particularly, after the Lima agreement and the government has repaid its debts,” he said.
“We can try to structure some lines of credit, talking to AfDB, IFC and any other international and regional partners, but we are not clear yet on the figure (credit).”
Agribank was one of the many institutions on the sanctions list imposed by the West, which meant that it was blacklisted from getting credit from Western financial institutions.
The bank will be seeking to get credit after experiencing a loss after tax of $5,8 million for the year-ending 2015 compared to $9,056 million in 2014.
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The bank blamed this on staff rationalisation costs amounting to $4,369 million after it cut 112 jobs. The cost-cutting measure led to a profit of $1,68 million for the first five months ending May.
Some of the cost reduction measures include adding 500 point-of-sale (POS) machines to its target of 1 000 in order to service 60% of its clientele located at growth points and rural areas.
“Due to cash challenges, we are increasing investment in ebanking. This way, clients can use POS machines. Every client of ours must have a card and access to POS machines,” Malaba said.
“Our main focus will be on small-scale farmers and ensuring we contain our costs and minimise non-performing loans.”
Once government has met a significant amount of its repayment plan to international partners, Agribank will aggressively seek credit starting with AfDB and IFC.
