Chinamasa promises financial sector reforms

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One of Harare’s “super dads” with 12 wives and 42 children was last Friday taken to court by one of his wives who is claiming $400 monthly for the upkeep of her four children.

FINANCE minister Patrick Chinamasa has said government is implementing several reforms to restore confidence in the financial services sector.

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

Speaking at the official opening of the new ZB bank headquarters in Avondale on Friday, Chinamasa said the Credit References Bureau would allow financial institutions to share information on would-be borrowers.

“These measures will strengthen corporate governance structures in the banking sector and restore the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s central banking function,” he said.

Some of the measures include amending the Banking Act, recapitalising the RBZ, establishing the Zimbabwe Asset Management Corporation, introducing a central credit Registry System and utilising the Afreximbank Aftrades facility.

It was government’s aim to use these measures to restore market confidence, as well as make capital readily accessible and affordable,” he said.

The economy is experiencing significant structural changes where corporates are downsizing and implementing austerity measures to remain competitive against the backdrop of an industry plagued with lack of finance.

Chinamasa said some of the major challenges include infrastructural bottlenecks, low market confidence, tight liquidity conditions, bribery and corruption, poor corporate governance and ethics, as well as ease and cost of doing business.

“International re-engagement is expected to help unlock fresh capital, while at the same time addressing perceptions about the country risk,” he said.

“It is our hope that addressing the debt issue will enable both the public and private sectors to access capital at favourable rates on the international markets.”

Zimbabwe has witnessed a string of bank failures in recent years where depositors lost their savings.