Mnangagwa says he's grateful for debt, arrears plan

Zimbabwe is grateful to development partners and creditors for embracing the resolution process of arrears clearance and debt, and hopes that if debts are rescheduled or written off, the economy will grow exponentially.

Already, Zimbabwe's economy is growing at about 5 percent per year, driven largely by agriculture and mining sectors.

Speaking in an interview with CNBC Africa last week during his visit to Egypt for the annual meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB), President Mnangagwa said since 2018, the Second Republic has thrust the economy on a massive growth trajectory, and is probably the fastest growing economy in SADC, despite the heavyweight of sanctions imposed by the West 23 years ago.

"We have had sanctions in the last 23 years and in those 23 years, Zimbabwe has not received any external credit," he said.

"In the process, as you are aware, our economy collapsed, our currency collapsed, but upon the coming in of the Second Republic, we have recovered from the collapse and our economy is now on a growth trajectory."

President Mnangagwa said while other African countries had their loans written off or rescheduled by multilateral financial institutions, Zimbabwe has been unable to benefit from such dispensations and continues to feel the impact of sanctions.

"So, we felt there must be some way of dealing with this growing debt, as a result of it just accumulating, as we never received any foreign credit. This debt is from the past and continues to grow.

"Under the Second Republic, we have begun making token payments to liquidate the debt and we have formulated this process where president of the African Development Bank Dr Akinwumi Adesina has accepted this process, together with the great son of Africa former Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano.

"We are happy that debt resolution and arrears clearance has been received very well both in Europe and America. They had a chance to travel to America and they were received and the response was very positive," said the President.

So far, five structured dialogue platform meetings had been held, as Zimbabwe continues to engage creditors and development partners to resolve the debt and arrears situation

Zimbabwe's total debt stands at US$17,5 billion, but following the launch of the debt and arrears resolution process, President Mnangagwa said "global cooperation is with us".

He said as the debt and arrears process roll on, the Government continues to explore ways of developing the economy.

"Everybody sees that Zimbabwe is on a growth trajectory. If you are aware, in SADC, our economy has been growing in the past three years by about 5 percent every year.

"With sanctions, everybody knows we are growing faster, so, it is critically important that we come back into the fold of the comity of nations and work together," said the President.

The output of the mining sector, he said, had risen from US$2,7 billion in 2017, to generating over US$6 billion last year.

Zimbabwe has set a target of turning the mining sector into a US$12 billion industry by the end of this year.

"We are growing without technology, we are growing without capital, we are growing without skills.

"With lithium coming up, we will be high up. Zimbabwe is open for business, but not for abuse.

"We have grown under sanctions, which were intended to kill us and investors will now come to Zimbabwe knowing that we are the owners of the resources and these resources have to benefit our people," he said.

Zimbabwe has instituted a number of economic reforms aimed at making global capital comfortable, said President Mnangagwa.

He said efforts will continue to be made for Zimbabwe to be more competitive.

Infrastructure such as roads and airports will also be modernised to improve the ease of doing business environment.