Browsing: Africa Export – Import Bank

Food security in Africa has always been the centre stage of all major global meetings. Photos of starving naked children have been paraded so much that hunger and Africa have become synonymous.

However, after years of talks, recommendations, solutions, funding, monitoring, evaluation, more talks, more recommendations, more funding…and then more years of new talks, new recommendations, new solutions, new funding… it’s exhausting; Africa is still hungry!

 The cool acronyms, the endless list of organizations, the countless projects and initiatives, the billions upon trillions issued every year, its all mind-boggling.

 Global Development Goals (GDG), Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), World Food Organisation (WFP), International Monetary Fund (IFM), World Bank (WB), African Development Bank (AfDB), Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)…it goes on and on.…

• Zimbabwe did not have a parallel market for foreign exchange in the years running from 2009 to around 2016.
• Zimbabwe is heavily reliant on imported products and expends more foreign currency than it can afford.
• Demand pressure has contributed to the fall of the Zimbabwe dollar resulting in general inflation.

This question has robbed monetary authorities of sleep as the Zimbabwe dollar falls precipitously on the parallel market.

Zimbabwe did not have a parallel market for foreign exchange in the years running from 2009 to around 2016.

It all began with the introduction of a surrogate currency that was fallaciously pegged at par with the United States dollar. The authorities initially posited that the surrogate currency was supported by a loan facility extended by the Africa Export-Import Bank (Afrexim Bank).

This loan it was said underscored the parity of the currency. It did not …