German ambassador to Zimbabwe, Thorsten Hutter has urged the government of Zimbabwe to settle its loans in order to access more financial aid from the government of Germany. Hutter said this when he appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs. He urged the government to pay back 465 million euro ($507 million) owed to the German Development Bank (Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau — KfW). The German Development Bank is also owed is also owed 40 million euro ($43 million) by Ziscosteel which borrowed the funds to construct a steel plant in 1998.
Said Hutter:
(The Zimbabwe) government has issued a statement saying they have the money available to pay back arrears of World Bank and the WB is not under obligation to offer any fresh loans to Zimbabwe because of the arrears. We are guided by the same policies,
The next step would be that government would have to pay back the arrears of WB, AfDB and Paris Club which we are part of, partly because we have lent money to Zimbabwe before which has not been paid back. That will have to be addressed. It may look like we do not want to give money to Zimbabwe for political reasons – that is not true.
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