By Primrose Tagutanadzo
Zimbabwe early this week received a US$961 million grant as part of its special drawing right by the International Monetary Funds (IMF) to help in combating the spread of COVID-19.
IMF has handed over US$350 billion to different countries in the world to empower its economic system which has been weakened by COVID-19.
Finance Minister Professor Mtuli Ncube has said the grant was expected to assist in boosting the country’s economy.
Economic analysist Stephen Dhlamini said the money had come to complement already existing resources.
“The money must be used in productive projects such as in agriculture to support horticulture which enables to double the money within a short period of time,” he said.
Political and economic commentator Dr Ushehwokunze said the money must be used to revamp the economic sector with other sectors to be prioritised including health, education and agricultural.
“The money from the IMF must be prudently allocated to all sectors, but mostly should be used in capacitating the informal sector because we had a wish to formalise the informal sector,” he said.
Labour Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe member Dr Chitambara said the Government and its people must be united in utilising the funds.
“Electricity, water and sanitation must also be improved using those funds and they must also be used to improve people’s livelihood since seven million Zimbabwean citizen are living in poverty,” he said.
