{"id":116265,"date":"2026-04-03T21:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mthuli-eyes-bridge-financing-to-pay-zims-debt"},"modified":"2026-04-03T23:17:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T21:17:21","slug":"mthuli-eyes-bridge-financing-to-pay-zims-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mthuli-eyes-bridge-financing-to-pay-zims-debt","title":{"rendered":"Mthuli eyes bridge financing to pay Zim\u2019s debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>FINANCE, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube has told Parliament that the government is eyeing a bridge financing facility to extinguish the country\u2019s mounting debt, which has now reached approximately US$28 billion.<\/p>\n

While official government figures put the total debt at around US$21-28 billion, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed in its 2025 Article IV Consultation Report that Zimbabwe\u2019s external debt alone stood at US$16,7 billion as of end-2024, with total public debt reaching US$23,3 billion.<\/p>\n

The debt comprises external debt owed to multilateral financial institutions, including the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB), among others.<\/p>\n

Domestic debt is estimated to be between US$500 million and US$14 billion according to different assessments.<\/p>\n

Kwekwe legislator Corban Madzivanyika described the debt as \u201chuge and horrendous\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy follow-up question is that this current debt has reached around US$28 billion in total,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as we have got this arrears clearance programme and the structural dialogue platform, can the Hon minister enlighten this House?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat plans do they have to extinguish this huge and horrendous debt?\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Ncube outlined a two-phase strategy centred on securing a \u201c24-hour loan\u201d from a yet-to-be-named bridge funding provider.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the standard approach involves identifying what we call a bridge funding provider or champion, who will then give us a 24-hour loan. Before that, what you need is what you call a set-aside from the African Development Fund, which is the soft window of the African Development Bank and also from the AIDA, which is the soft window of the World Bank,\u201d Ncube said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat set-aside, to the order of US$2,5 billion, or supplemented by other resources, is what is needed to pay back the provider of the 24-hour loan of US$2,5 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ncube said he expected to reach that stage by the second quarter of next year, allowing Zimbabwe to clear arrears with the two Bretton Woods institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we expect to be at that stage, I would say, in the second quarter of next year, we should be able to then deal with the arrears, at least from the World Bank and the AfDB, which are large indeed,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can do that, we will make quite a bit of progress towards clearing our arrears.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the European Investment Bank had shown \u201cquite a lot of generosity\u201d and was willing to consider waiving interest and penalties, though he stressed that no formal announcement had been made.<\/p>\n

Ncube said the government would move to Phase 2 to secure an Upper Credit Tranche-level programme with the IMF to unlock direct budget financing and pave the way for debt restructuring talks with the Paris Club of 17 bilateral creditors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we start implementing that programme, we then negotiate with the Paris Club to restructure the bilateral debt with the 17 Paris Club partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the way, we are already paying them tokens, which is a sign of goodwill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be good debtors, rather than bad debtors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposition legislator Edwin Mushoriwa, however, noted that Ncube has failed to address the domestic component of the debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cHon Madzivanyika asked the Hon minister about the US$28 billion. The Hon minister did not really talk about part of the debt, which is the domestic debt \u2014 reasonable at US$500 million to around US$14 billion \u2014 and that omission needs to be addressed,\u201d Mushoriwa said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. FINANCE, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube has told Parliament that the government is eyeing a bridge financing facility to extinguish the country\u2019s mounting debt, which has now reached approximately US$28 billion. While official government figures put the total debt at around US$21-28 billion, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":116264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-116265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"\nMthuli eyes bridge financing to pay Zim\u2019s debt - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FINANCE, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube has told Parliament that the government is ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mthuli-eyes-bridge-financing-to-pay-zims-debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mthuli eyes bridge financing to pay Zim\u2019s debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FINANCE, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube has told Parliament that the government is ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mthuli-eyes-bridge-financing-to-pay-zims-debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-03T19:07:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-03T21:17:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/sm_1775250833.903439.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1728\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mthuli-eyes-bridge-financing-to-pay-zims-debt#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mthuli-eyes-bridge-financing-to-pay-zims-debt\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Mthuli eyes bridge financing to pay Zim\u2019s debt\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-03T19:07:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-03T21:17:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mthuli-eyes-bridge-financing-to-pay-zims-debt\"},\"wordCount\":581,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mthuli-eyes-bridge-financing-to-pay-zims-debt#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/04\/sm_1775250833.903439.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mthuli-eyes-bridge-financing-to-pay-zims-debt#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mthuli-eyes-bridge-financing-to-pay-zims-debt\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mthuli-eyes-bridge-financing-to-pay-zims-debt\",\"name\":\"Mthuli eyes bridge financing to pay Zim\u2019s debt - 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