Pretoria, 5 October - The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) recently signed a three-way historic loan agreement with the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (ZINARA), the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development and the Ministry of Finance in Zimbabwe for the rehabilitation of a major road artery spanning from Plumtree on its western border with Botswana, through Harare, to Mutare on the country’s eastern border with Mozambique. This long east-west route spans 801 kilometers.

The development loan in the amount of US $ 206 million is the largest single loan granted by the DBSA for a development project in Zimbabwe. The first tranche of US$ 54 million to this project was just released and works are commencing.

This historic loan to Zimbabwe is the second biggest loan granted by the DBSA outside of South Africa and will give a much needed boost to Zimbabwe’s transport sector. In 2010, the Bank disbursed its first development loan of US$ 20 million for a revolving input credit scheme for small-scale Zimbabwean farmers through a cooperative business partnership that provides both credit and capacity building to some 127 000 growers on 242 000 hectares.

The Bank has continued to grow its international development financing, with new annual approvals recently reaching a record USD $1 billion, and annual disbursements rising sharply to USD 450 by end March 2011.