African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) was yesterday launched in Zimbabwe to help attract foreign direct investment and increase trade with partners as the Chief Executive Officer George Otione announced the availability of the institution’s financial solutions in Harare yesterday.
Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mike Bimha, who was at the launch expressed his excitement about the milestone achievement of Zimbabwe for becoming a full member of ATI.
“This will indeed go a long way in facilitating Zimbabwe’s trade with the rest of the world and attract the much-needed foreign direct investment to drive the country’s industrialisation agenda and infrastructure development,” said Bimha.
“Zimbabwe became a member of ATI in 2016 and has since benefitted from the support of more than USD 300 million of insurance support for projects in vital sectors with a pipeline of projects valued at several hundred million also under consideration,” states the institution’s website.
The launch was also attended by the new Minister of Finance Ignatius Chombo. He said that Zimbabwe’s membership will go a long way in mitigating the risks involved in international trade, notably sovereign risk insurance, reinsurance, co-insurance.
“In this regard, reduction in trade risks is expected to unlock foreign direct investment and affordable loan financing for industry capitalisation in response to the availability of guarantee initiatives and insurance products offered by ATI,” said Min Chombo.
Zimbabwe is having a problem in getting FDI with the former minister of finance travelling around the world looking for investors. ATI is a pan-African institution that provides risk solutions to companies, investors and lenders interested in doing business in Africa.
The institution was launched in 2001 to provide risk solutions for investors after a group of East African countries under the leadership of common market of east and southern Africa COMESA commissioned a world bank funded study to look into why the region was not attracting more FDI.