NRZ in US$115mln funding boost

Zimbabwe’s rail operator, the National Railway of Zimbabwe (NRZ), intends to invest US$115 million to acquire new equipment including wagons and locomotives in the short to medium term.

The Treasury will help in the mobilization of the funds after previous attempts to bring in new investors failed, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said.

While NRZ attracted the attention of various international investors, ministerial interference has largely been blamed for the collapse of most of the deals.

The more recent was the termination of a deal the NRZ had signed with Diaspora Infrastructure Development Group (DIDG), a consortium of Zimbabweans based in South Africa, who had partnered South African state-owned logistics firm Transnet.

Minister Ncube said given the huge capital requirements to fully capitalise the entity, the turnaround of the NRZ would be undertaken in two phases, namely, the short-term

recapitalisation phase and the medium to long term recapitalisation phase.

In the short term, resource mobilization strategies will target acquisition of nine new locomotives, 315 wagons and give Diesel Multiple Units at a total cost of

US$115 million.

“These short-term interventions would enable the NRZ to immediately uplift an

additional two million tonnes per annum and an additional 5,4 million passengers per annum, which would have an immediate impact on ameliorating challenges faced

by the ordinary commuters.

“To enable this project to function, infrastructure rehabilitation would be undertaken

in order to remove all the cautions affecting the smooth operations,” said Minister Ncube.

Meanwhile Minister Ncube said the Government has continued to recapitalise ZUPCO through the procurement of buses since 2018 to help ZUPCO to consolidate its position as the leader in the revival of mass public transport system.

In addition, ZUPCO has partnered Deven Engineering and AVM Africa for the

refurbishment of shells and in-house fitting of engines.

The import substitution initiative is expected to bring back 100 buses to operations.

The company is also developing a strategy for private sector participation in the entire

value chain of ZUPCO operations in ICT and E-ticketing, Infrastructure

Development, Engineering Services and Recapitalisation of operations.-ebusinesseekly