ZIMBABWE’S government said Wednesday it will compensate foreign investors who lost assets in the country’s controversial land reforms in the early 2000s but were protected by bilateral investment protection agreements.
Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said in a statement the government will pay 94 former farmers from countries such as Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and the former Yugoslavia.
The farmers are covered under Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements, or BIPPAs, that Zimbabwe signed with the farmers’ countries.
Ncube said $20 million is being paid out of the 2024 budget and another $20 million would come from the 2025 budget.
“This is a very important issue for our arrears clearance and debt resolution process for Zimbabwe, because some of the countries for which we want support, their farmers, their investors, into Zimbabwe were affected by the land reform programme in the early 2000s,” Ncube said. “But we’re only targeting those countries where the BIPPAs were ratified properly.”
The aim, he said, is to have cleared the entire $146 million liability for BIPPA farmers by the end of 2028.
“We believe that this is very important for building trust, for honouring our commitments,” he said.
Source: VOA
Eighteen-Eleven Media