By Tawanda Musarurwa

HARARE – The Zimbabwe National Road Administra-tion (ZINARA) says it is now disbursing the greater chunk of its funds towards periodic road maintenance in view of limited funds and a huge rehabilitation backlog.

Periodic maintenance entails re-sealing, re-gravelling and general broader rehabilita-tion of the country’s road network.

ZINARA acting chief execu-tive officer Engineer Moses Juma said the greater chunk of the institution’s funds was going towards long-term rehabilitation as opposed to community works.

News Update as @ 1530 hours, Tuesday 21 June 2016

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Treasury directs ZINARA to disburse 70pc of funds for rehabilitation

“The new policy direction guided by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Devel-opment is guiding ZINARA to disburse 30 percent towards routine maintenance works (community works) and 70 percent for periodic mainte-nance,” he said.

The acting CEO was speak-ing during the launch of the ‘Road Infrastructure Develop-ment Conference’, which will be held in Bulawayo along-side the Mine Entra 2016 exhibition.

The move to focus on broader rehabilitation comes as the parastatal is gener-ating funds way below the required amounts to fully rehabilitate the country’s road networks.

The national road devel-opment and rehabilitation programme under ZimAsset requires funding of about $5 bill ion over a five-year period, which translates to about $500 million annually.

Last year, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastruc-tural Development received $6 million from ZINARA and Treasury, a trend that has been common over the past few years, resulting in a huge backlog in road mainte-nance activities.

Board chairperson Mr Albert Mugabe said annual collec-tions were low against the total road rehabilitation requirements.

“ZINARA has a responsibil-ity to ensure we get value for the money that people pay….our road network has an estimated requirement of over $5 bill ion, and ZINARA this year is hoping to collect $200 million.”

He said it was therefore necessary to leverage on the natural resources readily available in the country to improve the road network.

“We don’t have the money, but we do have resources. When you assess the constit-

uent elements of a road you find that what you need is fi l ler material which makes the sub-structure…and when you look at all the require-ments it is only the bitumen which we don’t have locally.

“A safe, trafficable and effi-cient road network is very possible, it just requires that we have a different approach. Cumulatively what we can put together can equal the $5 bill ion that we are seeking. We have been working at this for quite some time and next month when we meet at Mine Entra we want to be presenting this,” he said.

According to the African Development Bank (AfDB)’s ‘Infrastructure and Growth in Zimbabwe report’ of the country’s total road network of nearly 90 000 kilometres, the proportion in fair to good condition declined from 73 percent in 1995 to only 60 percent

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By Funny Hudzerema

HARARE -Zimbabwe’s money supply growth rate rose 12, 8 percent at the end of April on the back of an increase in both savings and in deposits, latest Reserve Bank of Zim-babwe (RBZ) figures show.

The annual broad money supply growth rate rose from 12, 5 percent in April, the central bank said in its latest monthly report.

Monthly broad money supply rose by 0,3 percent to $5 004,9 million in April 2016.

The annual growth in broad money was largely on account of increases in savings at 226 percent; demand at 21,3 percent; and long term deposits at 18,3 percent.

Short term deposits, how-ever, decreased by 24, 1 per-cent during the period under review.

On an annual basis, growth in total banking sector credit rose from 23, 5 percent in March 2016, to 23, 8 percent in April 2016.

Monthly banking sector credit increased by 1, 5 percent to $5 623,6 million, during the period under review.

Credit to the private sector

recorded an annual decline of 3,4 percent to $3 633,9 million in April 2016, from $3 762,0 million in April 2015. On a month-on-month basis, credit to the private sector has remained almost the same.

During the period under review credit to the private sector consisted of loans and

advances at 85,2 percent; mortgages at 9,2 percent; other investments at 5,2 per-cent; bankers acceptances at 0,3 percent, and bills dis-counted at 0,2 percent.

The value of transactions processed through the RTGS system rose from $1 129,51 million in April to $1 126,74 million in May 2016.

RTGS payments constituted 82,27 percent of the total value of transactions pro-cessed through the NPS, followed by mobile at 8,03 percent; point of sale (POS) at 5,73 percent; Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) at 3,76 percent; and cheques at 0,21 percent.

The total number of NPS transactions stood at 5,563,099 during the week under analysis, down from the 5,702,979 transactions recorded in the previous week.●

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Zim money supply up 12,8pc

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BH24 Reporter

HARARE –State-owned mobile telecoms operator NetOne says it is now recording improved daily revenues following the introduction of a competitive tariff on calls.

NetOne chief operating officer. who is also the acting CEO, Mr Brian Mutandiro told the Par-liamentary Portfolio Committee on Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services that a number of strategic changes to the com-pany’s business model were beginning to reflect positive results.

“Our average cost per minute was very low, we were getting 2 cents while other networks were getting 12 cents profit per call. We have moved that to about 7 cents, which has resulted in a reduction in network traffic and that was expected. It creates capacity to launch value added prod-ucts.

“Since the beginning of the year our daily revenues were averaging $250 000 a day. Right now we are above $300 000 per day,” he said.

Mr Mutandiro was appointed as COO earlier in February after

a restructuring exercise at the mobile telecommunications company that began last year.

“The quality of the network is now better than other net-works. We are not a cheap network but we are a network that offers value.

“We are also seeing lots of opportunities in cutting costs we are looking at energy side, that is, cutting costs where we have base stations that are running with generators and those are areas without elec-tricity but we want to address those issues,” he said.

“We want to launch a num-ber of products to the market during the second half and we have a number of campaigns that a lined up to grabs oppor-tunities on the market.”

Chief finance officer Mrs Sibu-sisiwe Ndlovu said in terms of revenues in the first quarter of this year, NetOne accrued $48, 5 million, compared to $44, 3 million the same period last year.

Gross profit during the first quarter increased from $29 million to $34,6 million, she said.●

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NetOne’s daily revenues improve

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BH24 Reporter

HARARE -The country’s tobacco producers have so far earned $410,8 million from the sale of 140,7 million kilogrammes of Virginia tobacco since the tobacco selling season began on March 30, latest Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) figures show.

This is a 9 percent increase in terms of kilogrammes sold and an 8 percent jump in value from the same period last year.

The 140,7 million kilogrammes

were sold at both the country’s auction and contract floors.

The increase belies expectations that this year tobacco output

would decline by 20 percent due the El Nino induced drought which affected the crop.

According to TIMB, a total of 26,8 million kgs of tobacco worth $68,9 million has been sold at the auction floors while 113,9 million kgs worth $341,9 million has been sold at the contract floors.

Generally, the majority of Zim-babwean tobacco farmers have opted for contract farming due to the high costs of inputs.

During the prior comparable

period, a total of 129 million kgs worth $379,3 million had been sold.

Presently, the top price for the crop at the contract floors stands at $6, 25 per kg while at the auc-tion floors it is at $4, 99 per kg.

The lowest price that has been recorded so far is $0, 10 per kg.

A total of 122 355 bales have so far been rejected due to poor quality and poor packaging this season, compared to the 145 056 bales rejected in the same period last year.●

Tobacco farmers’ earnings up 8pc y-o-y

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HARARE -The equities mar-ket added to yesterday’s gains with a 1,4 percent rise as the mainstream indus-trial index was up by 1.32 to 95.28 in today’s trading.

Giant beverages producer Delta, which last week posted a string of losses, recovered to buoy the bourse after adding $0,0152 to $0,5500, while conglomerate

Innscor was also up $0,0031 to $0,1731.

Also trading in the black was Colcom and telecoms giant Econet which added $0,0014 and $0,0200 to $0,1646 and $0,2200, respectively.

And CFI and Nampak were also rose, gaining $0,0004 and $0,0007 to $0,0734 and $0,0187, respectively.

On the downside, Old Mutual and Barclays shed $0,0006 and $0,0018 to $2,2851 and $0,0170, respectively.

The mining index was flat at 26.24 as Bindura, Falgold, Hwange and RioZim remained unchanged on previous price levels at $0,0120, $0,0050, $0,0300 and $0,1700 in that order - BH24 Reporter ●

Equities market extend gains

14 ZsE

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MOvERs CHANGE TOdAy PRICE UsC sHAKERs CHANGE TOdAy PRICE UsC

ECONET 10.00 22.00 BARCLAyS -9.57 1.70

NAMPAk 3.88 1.87 OLD MuTuAL -0.02 228.51

DELTA 2.84 55.00

INNSCOR 1.82 17.31

COLCOM 0.85 16.46

CFI 0.54 7.34

INdEx PREvIOUs TOdAy MOvE CHANGE

INDuSTRIAL 93.96 95.28 +1.32 points +1.40%

MINING 26.24 26.24 +0.00 POINTS +0.00%

17 ZsE TABlEs

ZsE

INdICEs

stock Exchange

Previous

today

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20 dIARy OF EvENTs

The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.

POwER GENERATION sTATs

Gen Station

20 June 2016

Energy

(Megawatts)

Hwange 360 MW

kariba 565 MW

Harare 30 MW

Munyati 0 MW

Bulawayo 22 MW

Imports 0 - 400 MW

Total 1193Mw

22 JUNE 2016 -- Zimre Holdings limited 18th Annual General Meeting; Place: NICOZdIAMONd Auditorium, 7th Floor Insur-ance Centre, 30 samora Machel Avenue, Harare; Time: 1430 hours...

22 JUNE 2016 -- GB Holdings limited Annual General Meeting; Place: Cernol Chemicals Boardroom, 111 dagenham Road, wil-lowvale, Harare; Time: 11.30 hours...

23 JUNE 2016 -- Zimpapers 89th Annual General Meeting; Place: Zimpapers ltd Boardroom, sixth Floor Herald House, Cnr. G. silundika/sam Nujoma street, Harare; Time: 1200hrs…

24 JUNE 2016 -- dawn Properties Annual General Meeting; Place: Great Indaba Room, at the Monomotapa Hotel, 54 Parklane, Harare on Friday; Time: 10:00 hours...

22 JUNE -- lafarge Cement Zimbabwe Annual General Meeting; Place: Manresa Club, Arcturus Road, Harare; Time: 10:30hrs

30 JUNE -- African Sun Annual General Meeting; Place: Inyangani Room, ground floor at Holiday Inn Harare, Corner 5th street and samora Machel Avenue; Time: 12:00hrs

THE BH24 dIARy

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JOHANNEsBURG - Anglo American Platinum (Amp-lats) expects its half-year profit to fall by at least 20 percent due to weaker metal prices, the South African miner said on Tuesday.

Platinum prices have been hurt by growth concerns in China and oversupply wor-ries which have forced firms to abandon projects and sell mines.

Amplats, which produces around 40 percent of the world's platinum group metals, said it would make a further announcement once it had determined a likely range for its headline earn-ings per share.

Headline EPS, which strips out certain one-off items, is the main profit measure in South Africa.

Shares in Amplats were lit-tle changed at 379,09 rand, largely in line with the blue-chip JSE Top-40 index.

Amplats, a unit of global mining group Anglo Amer-

ican, is focusing on newer and more mechanised mines and removing unprofitable ounces following a record five-month strike in 2014.

Amplats, along with rivals Impala Platinum and Lon-min, is due to start wage talks with unions at the end of June, when the current

deal expires.

The National union of Mine-workers will demand pay increases of 20 percent per year for the next two years while demands from the larger Association of Mine-workers and Construction union are not yet known - Reuters●

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Amplats warns H1 profit to fall at least 20pc

REGIONAl NEws

NAIROBI - kenya's central bank has enough foreign exchange reserves and funds available from an IMF standby facility to weather any fallout from a British referen-dum on whether to leave the European union, the governor said on Tuesday.

"We think we are in a comfortable position," Governor Patrick Njoroge told a news conference, adding that a British vote to leave the Eu could hurt the global economy and kenya would "feel the shock wave".

kenya's foreign exchange reserves stood at $7,6 billion on June 16, equivalent to five months import cover, according the central bank figures on its website. In March, the International Monetary Fund approved two-year standby facilities for kenya worth about $1,5 billion, which can be drawn on if the East African nation faces unforeseen shocks. Britons vote in the referendum on Eu membership on Thursday- Reuters●

Kenya says has enough forex reserves to

weather any Brexit fallout

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The pound held its biggest two-day gain versus the dol-lar in more than seven years as opinion polls showed Britain’s referendum on European union membership is stil l too close to call two days before the vote.

Sterling advanced for a third day as a survey of 800 people by ORB for the Daily Telegraph had “Remain” at 53 percent and “Leave” at 46 percent among those certain to vote, once “don’t knows” were stripped out. In contrast, a youGov poll of 1,652 voters for the Times newspaper published late on Monday showed “Leave” at 44 percent and 42 percent for “Remain.”

The u.k. currency has been whipsawed before the referendum amid concern that a decision to leave the world’s-biggest trading bloc would spark market turmoil globally. A measure of the pound’s volatil ity versus the dollar over the coming week fell 2,2 percentage points to 37,3 percent, stil l remaining well above its five-year aver-

age of 7,8 percent.

“Sterling is supported by the recent rise in support for the ‘Remain’ camp, but if you look at an average of recent polls they stil l suggest it is neck and neck,” said Steven Barrow, head of Group-of-10 strategy at Standard Bank Group Ltd. in London. “It’s hard for traders or investors to go into Thursday with any

strong conviction -- or large position.”

The pound was little changed at $1,4718 as of 9:11 a.m. in London after surging 2,4 per-cent against the greenback on Monday and 1,1 percent the previous day. That back-to-back gain of 3,5 percent was unseen since Decem-ber 2008 and erased almost all of its loss for 2016. The

currency was at 77,06 pence per euro.

Bill ionaire investor George Soros said the pound may slump more than 20 percent against the dollar if British voters decided to quit the Eu, a devaluation bigger and more disruptive than when he profited by betting against the currency in 1992. – Bloomberg●

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Pound holds biggest gain since 2008 as EU-vote polls turn mixed

INTERNATIONAl NEws

By Aurther shoko

...Continued from yesterday This adds to the frustrations that we face in a cash strapped economy that has its eyes opened wide for foreign capital injections. Whatever inflows that could be coming via PayPal are not making their way into Zimbabwe when it needs them the most.

For Zimbabwe the PayPal glass remains half full or half empty depending on the type and level of inconvenience this maybe causing you. What could possibly be hindering PayPal from offering the full service to Zimbabwe?

PayPal is notoriously tight-lipped it’s not as easy to get an explanation on things (my email to them had not been responded to by the time we had pub-lished this post, if they do I will update).

So we can only learn from their operational patterns, previous public statements and personal experience to analyse how they

think. It appears activating full PayPal features for a particular market is depended on the mar-ket’s central bank regulations and PayPal policy itself.

Of the two, the latter is over-powering. PayPal prides itself of being “the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online”. This means safety and ease of use is right on the leading edge and therefore the company’s most guarded goal post.

This also means markets that cannot guarantee safety and ease of paying and getting paid are not worthy to receive full features but can only be consumers (make outgoing payments) as is the case with Zimbabwe.

Allowing risky countries to send money and not receive guarantees safety and ease of doing business within the PayPal ecosystem.

what are the implications of the current cash crisis on

PayPal in Zimbabwe?

My analysis leads me to con-clude that the depth and width of the current cash crisis is a big issue for PayPal in Zimbabwe, at least as it pertains receiving funds and operating merchant accounts.

In fact, we may have just kicked ourselves some years down the road away from full PayPal func-tionality that much of the world has long enjoyed.

It all begins here when Pay-Pal makes this promise to

the buyer:-

We understand that sometimes things don’t arrive as planned. So if an eligible item you’ve purchased online doesn’t arrive or arrives significantly different to the seller’s description, we can reimburse you for the full purchase price plus shipping costs, up to $20,000 per item. This, in other words, is part of PayPal’s flagship and strictly implemented Buyer Protection programme.

At the moment with badly depleted and depleting Nostro

accounts, Zimbabwean banks are hardly able to dance in sync with this essential PayPal requirement.

If PayPal allowed Zimbabwean account holders to operate mer-chant accounts, should some-thing go wrong, as it will, with a transaction be it fraud or lack of delivery of a promised good or service, PayPal would be unable to recover that amount and that would be bad for their business.

Poorly funded Nostro accounts is also the reason behind local banks switching off or limiting card use for cash withdraw-als via ATM when abroad, for example.

So the cash crises and overall financial market confusion is our undoing as it relates to PayPal. In coming articles I will explore possible current work-arounds or alternatives.

However, be cautious of the fact that these are just but work-arounds and cannot match the robustness and security offered by PayPal – TechZim●

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Zimbabwe’s incomplete PayPal experience adds to cash crisis frustrations