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Harare Bureau
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has confirmed holding talks with a Zimbabwean delegation led by Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube in connection with a $500-million nostro stabilisation facility.

Zimbabwe, which is going through a damaging foreign currency crisis, is looking for stabilisation facilities while at the same time coming up with long term measures to address its economic challenges.

In a statement released on its website, the regional bank said a delegation of the Afreximbank led by its President Prof Benedict Oramah, held talks with a team led by Minister Ncube, and the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Dr John Mangudya, to discuss Afreximbank’s support to Zimbabwe’s economic recovery. The meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the 2018 International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group Annual Meetings, highlighted the bank’s various facilities currently operational in Zimbabwe.

“They discussed the modality of the $500-million nostro stabilisation facility, which Zimbabwe had requested from the bank and agreed on the processes towards concluding that transaction by the end of October 2018,” reads the press release.

The ultimate goal of the facility is to secure payments for essential imports and to promote exports, diaspora remittances and deposit of foreign currency. It is envisaged that this will restore foreign currency liquidity and stability in the market, said Afreximbank.

The bank said President Oramah also took advantage of the meeting to brief the Zimbabwean minister about the Intra-African Trade Fair being organised by the Bank in December and the Babacar Ndiaye Lecture which Afreximbank hosted in Bali on October 13.

Last week, Minister Ncube tweeted that he had had fruitful discussions with the President of Afreximbank Dr Oramah with the regional bank offering “Zimbabwe a facility to guarantee 1:1 convertibility of RTGS balances into US$ and availability of US$ for Nostro FCAs.”