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Zimbabwe gets $200m Afreximbank loan to import maize

By NAN
22 January 2016   |   12:03 pm
The government of Zimbabwe says it has secured a 200-million-dollar loan from Africa Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank) to import maize.
Afreximbank

Afreximbank

The government of Zimbabwe says it has secured a 200-million-dollar loan from Africa Export and Import Bank (Afreximbank) to import maize.

The country’s Central Bank Governor, John Mangudya, said on Friday in Harare that the loan was to meet the shortfall in maize production occasioned by drought.

He said that the Southern African nation of 13 million people planned to import up to 700,000 tonnes of the staple maize this year to avert hunger as the El Nino weather pattern brings poor rains and affects crops.

“We have arranged a facility of 200 million dollars from Afreximbank and we will be importing from anywhere in the world,” Mangudya said.

He added that Zimbabwe had 250,000 tonnes in its strategic reserves and had enough maize to last until September but private millers had previously said that maize stocks would not last beyond June.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said some 14 million people face hunger in Southern Africa because of a drought that was exacerbated by an El Nino weather pattern.

Zimbabwe’s annual maize consumption is 1.5 million tonnes but the 2015 harvest was half that following another drought.

Agriculture is critical to Zimbabwe’s economy, generating 30 per cent of export earnings and contributing 19 per cent to GDP, while 70 per cent of the population still survives on farming. (Reuters/NAN)

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