Zimbabwe to pay former farmers $331 million in exchange for debt repayment – BNN Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — Zimbabwe plans to pay $331 million to former white farmers whose land the country confiscated in 2000, in a move to force creditors to agree to a restructuring of the country’s debt stock that has left it without access to international capital markets for more than two decades.

The country has identified at least 439 former landowners as “beneficiaries of a $331 million financial settlement,” African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said Monday at a debt conference with the country’s creditors in the capital Harare, without disclosing the time period.

Zimbabwe has set aside $35 million in this year’s budget to begin payments, Adesina said. “The debt will be repaid through bonds.”

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa sought the help of Adesina and former Mozambique leader Joaquim Chissano in 2022 to lead negotiations with creditors including the World Bank, the Paris Club, the European Investment Bank and the AfDB.

Last month, the southern African country hired Global Sovereign Advisory and Kepler-Karst to help it pay down its $21 billion debt pile.

The debt has left the country unable to obtain financing from multilateral lenders such as the International Monetary Fund, forcing it to resort to central bank assistance to finance its borrowings.

“No one, no matter how strong, can run up a mountain with a backpack of sand on his back,” Adesina said, comparing Zimbabwe’s $21 billion debt – most of which is debt – to that burden.

“We can all agree that we have a role to play in correcting this anomaly, bringing new life to this nation and its people,” he said. “Zimbabwe is too important for the world to ignore.”

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