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The European Investment Bank (EIB) has lent about €40m to Zimbabwe banks within a year, which will go towards bailing out the country’s SMEs and mid-cap companies, in a vote of confidence in the country’s financial institutions.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has lent about €40m to Zimbabwe banks within a year, which will go towards bailing out the country’s SMEs and mid-cap companies, in a vote of confidence in the country’s financial institutions. Recently, EIB signed a deal to avail €12.5m to NMB Bank in the capital Harare.
This followed a similar deal signed with First Capital Bank on Tuesday this week. The loan facilities have a tenure of seven years. Last year, EIB availed €15m to CABS, becoming the first-ever partnership with a Zimbabwe bank in 22 years.
Speaking at the signing ceremony held in Harare recently, Agriculture, Private Sector and Trade, European Union Delegation to Zimbabwe head Bernard De Schrevel said the facilities are a vote of confidence in local financial institutions. De Schrevel said there was no economy without lending and the facility represented how lending is important to economic resilience and growth which was why this year’s EIB investment facilities of First CapitalBank and NMB are similar packages implemented in Zimbabwe in 2021.
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The facilities address one of the key bottlenecks in doing business in Zimbabwe which is a key access to finance. Local companies have been struggling to access capital at a lower cost as the foreign currency auction has failed to meet their needs.
