Published: 08 October 2013

Zimbabwean Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) should strive to enlarge their resource mobilisation pool to include international capital markets, an official said on Monday.

DFIs include institutions like the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ), Agribank and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

SADC Development Finance Resource Center (DFRC) chief executive officer Stuart Kufeni told a media briefing that it was important for local DFIs to improve their credit ratings for them to access funding from alternative financiers.

"With time they (DFIs) should now be able to go beyond the Zimbabwean capital market and look up to the international market and raise the funds," he said.

"That is where the issue of rating comes in. They have to be rated to compete with these other big international DFIs which among them include the DBSAs of South Africa, IDCs of SA.

"So we must ensure that the Zimbabwean DFIs have the right skills, governance structures, and right operational systems or have the right environment to make them ratable."

IDBZ chief executive officer Charles Chikaura who is also the chair of the SADC DFRC Board of Trustees said resource mobilisation was the cornerstone of infrastructure growth and development. He said regionally steps were being taken to create a fund to finance infrastructure development.

- New Ziana

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