Zimbabwe has raised a $193.3 million loan from South Africa’s Standard Bank, its Zimbabwean unit and Absa Group, to finance public hospitals and clinics, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said. The Treasury through the Zimbabwe Debt Management Office negotiated the Export Credit insurance Corp of South Africa-backed sovereign loan, Ncube said in an emailed statement. The funds will be used to build five district hospitals and 22 health centers across Zimbabwe’s ten provinces, he said.
The southern African nation has been locked out of international capital markets since defaulting on payments to the World Bank and other multilateral lenders more than two decades ago. It owes creditors more than $13 billion as of October. Zimbabwe resumed token repayments in 2021 to reopen access to those credit lines and is seeking an International Monetary Fund staff-monitored program to help implement a debt clearance plan overseen by African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina.
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Watch out for a bank run.
I guess Standard Bank and ABSA had some profits they needed to write off.
Our public hospitals are not too far off.
Brave, if not silly. Banks and other people's money.