President Mnangagwa sat down with Afreximbank president George Elombi at State House to talk about dumping cash into road projects and mineral processing facilities across the region. The pan-African lender came through to check out their almost-finished African Trade Centre in Harare, which hits 95 percent completion and will function as their permanent Southern Africa hub when it opens early next year.
Elombi mentioned they want to fix the massive traffic nightmare on the Beira corridor and set up testing labs for African products before they ship overseas. The bank plans to fund everything through private sector partnerships without touching government budgets, and they picked Zimbabwe to host the intra-African trade fair headquarters.
The meeting also covered getting countries to stop shipping raw minerals abroad and actually process them locally for better returns. Elombi said Afreximbank has the funding and expertise lined up, but governments need to cut the red tape and streamline approval processes to make value addition work across the continent.
Elombi mentioned they want to fix the massive traffic nightmare on the Beira corridor and set up testing labs for African products before they ship overseas. The bank plans to fund everything through private sector partnerships without touching government budgets, and they picked Zimbabwe to host the intra-African trade fair headquarters.
The meeting also covered getting countries to stop shipping raw minerals abroad and actually process them locally for better returns. Elombi said Afreximbank has the funding and expertise lined up, but governments need to cut the red tape and streamline approval processes to make value addition work across the continent.
