The African Development Bank may cancel its future aid for Zimbabwe due to nonpayment of debt worth an estimated USD400 million, finance minister Tendai Biti said.
Failure to settle the loans may make Zimbabwe ineligible to access lines of credit from the regional lender, the official said Sept. 8.
“I was very much disturbed… the African Development Bank in the last year alone gave grants and loans of [USD]9 billion. In the next five years it is going to give loans and grants of [USD]30 billion and we will not be in the party because we haven’t cleared (the debt). We just heard of a general capital increase of 200 [percent] at the AfDB but we are not benefiting,” Biti said as quoted by the Zimbabwe Independent.
Zimbabwe is expected to present a “hybrid” debt clearing plan Sept. 14. The African nation owes financial institutions, including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Paris Club and AfDB, some USD7 billion.
