The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a US$25m trade finance line of credit facility to the Central Africa Building Society of Zimbabwe, to be used to boost local firms and small and medium-sized enterprises.
This facility will enhance foreign currency liquidity support for the building society amidst a tough economic climate in Zimbabwe. The facility will cover some of the trade finance gaps developed mainly due to international lenders who having scaled down or halted their trade transactions due their perception of Zimbabwe as a high-risk jurisdiction.
The facility, which would finance approximately US$175m of trade over a three-and-a-half-year period, marks the African Development Bank’s fourth private sector intervention in Zimbabwe in recent years and the third to the building society.
