The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) has disbursed more than ZWL$257 billion between January and September this year, NewsDay has heard.
Zinara spokesperson Tsungie Manyeza told NewsDay that the latest disbursements published yesterday were in addition to the contribution towards repayment of the Development Bank of Southern Africa loan.
She said going into next year, Zinara anticipates a positive shift in the proportion of the total disbursements basket in favour of the road authorities.
“In the current year, the amount disbursed so far is quite significant in relation to the originally slated budget of ZWL$41 billion, which has since been revised to an excess of ZWL$250 billion as at September 3, 2023,” Manyeza said.
“It is expected that as road authorities continue to tender their project acquittals and reports during the course of the fourth quarter, more funding will be availed to them from collected cash cumulatively reserved for disbursement, so as to accelerate outstanding projects before the end of the year.
“We are mindful that road maintenance is an ongoing process. Therefore, we remain focused on coordinated collaboration with road authorities to deliver on progressive road infrastructure projects.
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“To this end, Zinara is now well equipped with qualified engineers across all provinces in Zimbabwe who are assisting with overseeing projects and supporting road authorities to undertake their acquittals timeously ahead of funds draw downs.”
Zinara has also undertaken to keep record of the downstream impact of road maintenance programmes as part of its commitment to environmental, social and governance practices.
“It’s common knowledge that a good road network is a catalyst to economic development as it provides efficient movement of goods and people.
“From the data we have compiled so far through our provincial roads engineers, of the more than 4 000km of roads completed under periodic and routine maintenance, as well as over 800 drainage structures constructed nationwide, more than 900 jobs have been created, while various levels of skills transfer has been achieved in the process,” she said.
Manyeza said Zinara was also defining its own sustainability framework, hence the interest in the overall contribution to socio-economic development of the funds it administers.
“We, therefore, appeal to the motoring public to regard their compliance in terms of paying road user fees as partnership for socio-economic development. This, in turn, yields other significant downstream benefits in addition to having a good trafficable road network,” she said.