ZIMBABWE has been ranked number three on a key African index for budget transparency and fiscal openness after South Africa (SA), and Benin, officials say.
This comes as Finance minister Mthuli Ncube has recently disclosed that the country’s debt management and reporting regimes have remarkably improved – over the past five years – after moving from “red flags” to green zones in many categories, and Harare is also tightening its public finance management systems by insisting on e-government procurements and clamping down on over-contracting.
“We ranked number three after SA and Benin, and we are only three countries… to have met the global minimum standards in terms of transparency, and quality budgeting..,” Ncube told a Daily News mid-term budget review gathering last week before adding that Treasury had “identified post-budget engagement and consultation as an area requiring greater attention”.
“…we will be spending more time… on how we are performing in terms of budget implementation, various financing programmes and where we should fine-tune. We are doing well with pre-budget and then the implementation phase, but post-budget consultation needs improvement and, so, this process will start properly this year,” he said, adding “stronger public engagement will help ensure that budget priorities remain aligned with citizens’ expectations while improving transparency over government spending”.
While the country has scored highly on the 2025 Open Budget Survey (OBS) – a two year evaluation carried by the International Budget Partnership and a globally-recognised body that is focused on oversight of government budgets – Ncube announced late last year that public debt reporting had also improved from 2020 with red flags disappearing in four of nine categories to zero in 2024.
The econometrics professor has not only stressed that government’s
‘resolve in allocating more resources to key socio-economic sectors such as health, infrastructure and others with pressing developmental needs had vastly increased”, but key aid agencies including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other western partners have responded to these reform efforts by approving the first part of Zimbabwe’s 10-month staff monitored programme, and creating a debt consultative group (DCG) to expunge its US$22 billion debt.
“Continued progress in public financial management, governance and risk management (strategies are) important to reinforce transparency, accountability and confidence..,” the IMF said in its statement to announce the recent development.
“Improving cash planning and public financial management is another important element of the programme. The authorities will enhance institutional arrangements… and improve short-term liquidity forecasting to support more predictable and credible budget execution. Over time, broader PFM reforms – including improved capture of commitments and a Treasury Single Account – will help strengthen the efficiency and transparency of public spending,” it said at the time of agreeing to the new SMP project.
“France and the United Kingdom have agreed to co-chair the DCG together with the Ministry of Finance… and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, to help operationalise… and maintain coherence across the overall… engagement architecture,” Ncube said in a report earlier last week, adding the co-chairs “will work towards arrears clearance, debt restructuring and coordinating the dialogue process”.
“The aim is to provide a transparent, predictable, and institutionalised platform for engaging creditors; address the complexity of bilateral and plurilateral negotiations; and clarify the sequencing… process, including the critical path from securing the SMP… to an upper credit tranche and comprehensive debt treatment,” he said.
Crucially, the DCG announcement – along other initiatives such as the structured diaogue platform led by the African Development bank and ex-Mozambican president Joachim Chissano – comes at a time Treasury says it is “escalating token payments to creditors using using fiscal surpluses in the region of ZiG7,4 billion as at March this year”.
And analysts, including Eddie Cross, Morris Mpala and Titus Mukove, have not only said the transfer of debt management responsibilities from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to Treasury had partially helped address some long-standing concerns around opaque borrowing and the country’s exact or total debt, but improve openness to bolster investor and public confidence in Harare’s fiscal policies, and governance.
“Executives controlling debt for Zimbabwe are people of absolute integrity, and I have no doubt at all that, in recent years, they have been responsible and… in fact, we have been told the real facts. So, I have no doubt at all today that the figures they give us… are about right, and that represents about 40 percent of our GDP, so in fact we are actually under-borrowed internationally,” Cross said in a recent interview.
On his part, Mpala said: “Treasury has been forthcoming on the quantum of debt and its analysis, which is very ideal for the economy in general. It builds confidence and trust. And if we are to religiously service the debt, it also opens up avenues for new capital to companies, and the government.”
“The overall transparency level has improved between 2020 and 2024, but it still remains incomplete in key areas such as contingent liabilities and the instrument coverage,” Mukove said, adding “weak disclosures could mean or result in further economic costs”. Among other tools that Zimbabwe’s Finance ministry has been using to contain national expenditure is the e-government procurement system, capping non-approved and over-contracting habits at US$2 million, and insistence on a national standard pricing list.