Securitization will be an ill advised adventure

Turning Zimbabwe’s natural resources to liquid assets will be ill advised and an abrogation of duty by this generation and Zimbabwe will not do it.

Tendai Biti
Tendai Biti

Weekend reports said Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono had called for securitization as a way for Zimbabwe to service its debt that currently stands at US$9 billion claiming the country is to rich to be poor and other countries like the DRC and Angola had done it.

“The Democratic Republic of Congo unlocked over 8 billion to support reconstruction and while Angola has leveraged its debt using oil if they did it why can’t we do the same,” Gono is quoted as saying.

But Biti was quick to stick such talk into the ice bucket saying it can only work for countries that do not have debt but require finance for infrastructure development and social service delivery.

“Zimbabwe cannot securitise its resources in order to service debt; mind you this is money that was consumed a long time ago.

“We cannot punish posterity for our sins by mortgaging underground minerals, it’s not sustainable and it is not advisable,” Biti said He emphatically declared Zimbabwe will not securitise or turn its resources into liquid assets as suggested by Gono.

“We will continue to play the game as we know it not try to invent the wheel, we will use instruments like the Zimbabwe Accelerated Debt and Development Strategy (ZADDS) and joining the post Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) program.

“Requirements of which are as simple as good corporate governance and we have been very good on this score since 2009,” the Minister said

The Finance Minister said government was now talking to the IMF, World Bank and other creditors so they can possibly write off the country’s debt or defer it.

“We are talking to creditors so they can forgive our debt, like the IMF and the World Bank.

“Our argument is we have been very good children, so they should forgive us and we hope they will listen fovourably,” he said.

Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and Finance Minister Tendai Biti have been at each other’s throats over the way fiscal and monetary policy implementation.

Gono played a pseudo Prime Minister at the height of the high-per-inflationary era; his wings were clipped when Biti came into office at the inception of the Government of National Unity in 2009.

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