Low uptake of GDIF facility by women
SMALL-SCALE miners have so far utilised $160 million from the Gold Development Initiative Fund (GDIF) that was set up to boost their operations through mechanisation.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe ( RBZ) introduced the facility through the country’s sole gold buyer, Fidelity Printers and Refiners.
In an interview, head of the GDIF Mr Matthew Chidavaenzi said since the launch of the gold facility, uptake has been “tremendous” due to low cost geological survey reports the miners were using to apply for financing.
“We were given $200 million, which is our fund value and we have so far given out about $160 million.
“We have made short strides where most of our miners are now getting some low-cost geological survey reports, which they can use to actually attract investment,” he said.
“The uptake has been tremendous to the extent that we have now become the financier of choice for most miners.”
Mr Chidavaenzi said one of the reasons that led to the creation of the GDIF was to demystify lending to small-scale miners as most of the financiers were not lending players in the small-scale mining sector.
He said of the $160 million so far loaned out, only 11 percent was disbursed to women in mining and that low uptake of loans under GDIF by women entrepreneurs relate to collateral issues, claims ownership wrangles and failure to take up mining projects.
“Only 11 percent of the $160 million given out to small-scale gold miners has gone to women in mining from around 10 percent previously.
“The first challenge, which women miners have in accessing loans is the issue of collateral and this has been an issue because of the historical background that most women do not have access to immovable property,” he said.
“I am happy to say that as Gold Development Initiative Fund, we managed to mitigate that challenge by partnering one of our sister companies so that we will be able to provide mining finance to women without collateral.
“The second challenge has been the issue of violence that is prevalent in gold mining. This violence is not just affecting women but it’s also affecting the ability of the country to attract private sector investments into these projects. By nature, women abhor violence so they have not been keen to enter into mining.”
Mr Chidavaenzi said the violence in the small-scale gold mining sector was mostly to do with ownership of mining claims.
In the past, corruption has been singled out as a major contributory factor to double or multiple allocation of mining claims by some Government officials within the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development. As a result of mining claim ownership wrangles, potential investors into the gold sub-sector have been scared away.
Mr Chidavaenzi also pointed out that there has been low uptake of loans under the GDIF by women entrepreneurs because most of them did not have mining claims.
“Most of them do not have mining claims and because they don’t have claims, they then find it difficult to come and approach Fidelity Printers for mining finance.
“We have noted that within their circles, they should be able to approach the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development as the ministry is also recovering some dormant mines, which the Government should be able to provide a certain quota to women,” he said. — @okazunga