The Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe and Infrastructure Financing

Infrastructure development plays an important role in the economic growth and development of any country. However, in Africa, limited access to sustainable infrastructure has been identified as one of the critical developmental challenges facing the continent and this tends to constrain productivity and limits the continent’s GDP potential. Limited access to long-term finance for infrastructure development has become characteristic of the continent’s inability to achieve sustainable development. To fill this financing gap in infrastructure development in Africa, the role of National Development Banks (NDBs) has become topical in policy discourse in recent times. To make the case for Zimbabwe, this chapter examines the role of the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) in infrastructure financing in the country. The chapter provides an overview of development finance institutions (DFIs) in Zimbabwe. It discusses the profile and history of IDBZ, its policy mandate, the political economy and institutional context of the bank, and corporate governance arrangements, among others. Risk management mechanisms, monitoring and evaluation structures, lending model of the bank, products, and services of the bank, main achievements as well as the challenges the bank faces are explored.