China Development Bank provides $93 million loan to Econet Wireless Zimbabwe for telecommunication network expansion and refinancing purposes

China Development Bank provides $93 million loan to Econet Wireless Zimbabwe for telecommunication network expansion and refinancing purposes On June 20, 2014, China Development Bank signed a $93 million loan agreement with Econet Wireless Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe's largest provider of telecommunications services) for telecommunication network expansion and refinancing purposes.

This loan carried an effective interest rate of 5.7%, and it was guaranteed by Econet Global Limited (EGL).

The originally scheduled final repayment (maturity) date was August 21, 2019, making the estimated maturity of the loan 5.166-years. The loan was collateralized against a minimum cash balance in a debt service reserve account (DSRA).

There are some indications that the $93 million CDB has financial underperformed vis-a-vis the original expectation of the lender.

In 2017, as a result of the a shortage of foreign currency in the overseas nostro accounts of Zimbabwe’s banks, repayments to CDB worth $12.4 million were funded from the DSRA (given that foreign currency could not be availed within the repayment deadlines. CDB was advised in advance of the DSRA utilization and provided with a 'remediation plan'.

As of February 28, 2017, the borrower had made repayments to the lender worth $21,455,000 and the loan's (principal) amount outstanding was $71,219,000. By February 28, 2017, the borrower had fully repaid the loan.