Zimbabwe’s banks are preparing to finance the government’s push to process more minerals locally, with lenders pooling resources and working with development financiers to meet the heavy capital requirements of beneficiation projects, the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe (BAZ) says.
By Ryan Chigoche
The financing need is becoming more urgent as the government moves to restrict exports of raw minerals and presses mining companies to invest in local processing to retain more value from the country’s mineral wealth.
Mines and Mining Development Minister Polite Kambamura has repeatedly stressed that Zimbabwe must move beyond extracting minerals and exporting them in raw form. The government wants more processing and value addition to take place locally, creating new industrial capacity around the country’s mineral resources.
Turning that policy into reality, however, will require substantial capital. Processing plants can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take years to generate returns, putting them beyond the reach of most individual domestic lenders.
In an interview with Mining Zimbabwe, BAZ chief executive Fanwell Mutogo said banks were looking at ways of combining their resources and working with development finance institutions to fund projects that individual lenders could not take on alone.
“Government policy driving mineral beneficiation requires hundreds of millions of dollars in long-term capital per processing plant. Recognising that no single domestic commercial bank can realistically finance this ambition alone, banks are actively exploring collaborative ways to overcome this challenge.
“Local banks are actively participating in syndicated loans, pooling their resources together to fund larger beneficiation and processing projects.
“Banks are acting as conduits for blended finance, combining commercial bank capital with concessionary funding and risk guarantees from multilateral institutions like Afreximbank.
“This collaborative approach allows the domestic banking sector to punch above its weight, mitigating individual risk while supporting the country’s industrialisation agenda.”
The approach is already taking shape. In July, eight local financial institutions mobilised a US$125 million facility for the Shamva New Project, showing how banks can combine their balance sheets to finance projects that would be too large for one lender.
That model could become increasingly important as Zimbabwe tightens restrictions on raw-mineral exports and companies are required to invest more heavily in processing capacity. Industry estimates suggest local banks could collectively raise between US$4 billion and US$5 billion towards the roughly US$10 billion the mining industry needs for new developments over the next five years.
The financing challenge is therefore no longer limited to opening new mines. Banks will increasingly have to support the processing plants, infrastructure and other investments needed to turn mineral production into higher-value products.
Mutogo said the economic environment was also becoming more conducive to longer-term lending, arguing that policy uncertainty was no longer the main obstacle holding back bank financing.
According to the 2026 Monetary Policy Statement, inflation has remained below 5% since January, while the ZiG has maintained relative stability against major currencies.
“Because of this newfound macroeconomic stability and predictability, regulatory uncertainty is no longer the primary obstacle to lending,” Mutogo said.
The improved stability is gradually changing the way banks approach mining finance, with lenders becoming more comfortable with longer loan tenures and greater exposure to projects requiring substantial upfront capital.
That will be important if the government’s raw-mineral export restrictions are to result in actual processing capacity. Kambamura has continued to push for greater domestic value addition, putting pressure on mining companies to invest in beneficiation rather than simply increase production for export.
For Zimbabwe’s banks, the policy is opening a larger market for mining finance, but one that comes with longer repayment periods and greater project risk.
With the mining industry estimated to need about US$10 billion over the next five years, the ability of domestic banks to combine their balance sheets with development-finance institutions will be critical to turning Zimbabwe’s mineral wealth into processing capacity, industrial investment and higher-value exports.
