A historic €15 million credit facility from the European Investment Bank (EIB) has been awarded to CABS, formerly Central African Building Society.
This is the first-ever European Investment Bank engagement with a Zimbabwean commercial bank and the first engagement in the country in EIB in 22 years.
Credit facilities have been dwindling since the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe at the turn of the millennium. With one of the largest banking networks in the country, CABS is a subsidiary of Old Mutual Zimbabwe Limited, Zimbabwe’s largest life assurance organization.
The Zimbabwean government claims the sanctions took away their ability to service their local and foreign debts resulting in the country being blacklisted while some institutions stopped extending credit facilities in fear of sanctions from the Breton Woods institutions.
Zimbabwean financial institutions used to get most of the credit facilities from Breton Woods financial and other international institutions that have not been forthcoming for two decades.