IDBZ mulls $54m bond

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Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) plans to issue a $54 million bond to finance expansion programmes at TelOne and the Zimbabwe Power Company

THE Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) has plans to issue a $54 million bond to finance expansion programmes at State-owned telecoms firm TelOne and the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) at the beginning of next year, a company official has said.

Tarisai Mandizha Business Reporter

Speaking at the official opening of the Zimbabwe Development Finance School in Harare yesterday, IDBZ chief executive officer Charles Chikaura said last year the bank issued $30 million bonds and this year it was going to return to the market to raise $54 million.

The IDBZ issued the $30 million bonds on October 29 2012 to fund the retrofitting of prepaid meters in homes and small institutions countrywide installed by the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company.

“We are planning to go back to the market in the New Year for an amount of $54 million for TelOne and ZPC,” Chikaura said.

Chikaura said the State-owned company TelOne requires money for the fibre optic project and ZPC requires funding for the Kariba South project.

Commenting on the Zimbabwe Development Finance School, Chikaura said over the next three weeks, the Zimbabwe cluster of development finance institutions (DFIs), namely IDBZ, the Agricultural Bank of Zimbabwe (Agribank), the Small Enterprise Development Corporation and the Industrial Development Corporation under the auspices of Southern African Development Community Development Finance Resource Centre will be undertaking three workshops in the important areas of investment appraisal and risk analysis, financial modelling and due diligence.

He said DFIs played a critical role both as investors and the mobilisation of resource for investment in critical socioeconomic projects, particularly those characteristed by long gestation periods and low returns which under normal circumstances were less attractive to banks.

“As DFIs, we view the fund as the precursor to the establishment of a fully-fledged regional development bank and, therefore, its expedition would be most welcome,” he added.