Savious Kwinika
26 January 2004
Bulawayo — THE World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are increasingly becoming impatient with Zimbabwe's failure to service its debt payments now hovering around US$1 billion, it has been established.
In an interview here on Wednesday, World Bank head for Africa, Tim Carrington, said Zimbabwe has a debt amounting to US$946,5 million which needed immediate clearance before the Bretton Wood institution could start committing itself to assisting the country towards economic recovery.
"For the World Bank to provide new assistance to deal with the country's economic problems, Zimbabwe will need to reach an agreement with the international bank on its debt payment, as well as on a sound economic programme for the future," said Carrington.
"Right now, much of the long-term development effort from the World Bank is on hold because the government of Zimbabwe is in arrears in making debt service payments on the outstanding loans from the bank," he said.
Carrington said Zimbabwe was a powerful economic emerging giant in Africa but due to poor fiscal and land reform policies, the southern African nation crumbled heavily.
Zimbabwe, which used to be the breadbasket for Southern Africa, has been failing to allocate proper agricultural skills in order to provide food for its starving citizens and the region at large, said the WB official.
"A few years ago, Zimbabwe was selling up to 500 000 metric tonnes of surplus food to the United Nations World Food Program to distribute to hungry people in other countries, but right now the country needs more assistance than any in SADC region," said Carrington.
He said humanitarian agencies were gearing up to feed more than half the country's population owing to the food shortages.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Project Trust Emergency Support Programme (ZPTESP) in Matabeleland region, an NGO involved in the food relief and supplementary feeding scheme says it is providing food to more than 30 000 families per month with emergency food aid.
According to the NGO's regional co-ordinator, Lucia Ndlovu, her organisation provides nutrimeal, cooking oil, beans and maize meal to children under the age of five, adults and those that under vulnerable situations.
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