HARARE: The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) will spend $1 million to modernise equipment for its subsidiary Aurex Private Limited (Aurex) as it moves to start beneficiation of diamonds, RBZ governor John Mangudya has said.
Aurex will do diamond cutting and polishing over and above manufacturing of jewellery.
Aurex was revived in March having stopped operating during the hyperinflationary environment. It is currently operating at 20% capacity
“We are in the process of modernising the equipment for the full house of diamond cutting and polishing. Our aim is to beneficiate and produce goods and create employment,” he said.
Mangudya said the bank began cutting and polishing of diamonds with a budget of $1 million this year. Zimbabwe discovered alluvial diamonds in 2008 and it was believed that the country accounts for 25% of the world’s diamonds.
Despite the huge reserves, there was nothing to show for it as unpolished diamonds were sold outside creating employment in the buyers’ countries through cutting and polishing.
Mangudya said RBZ had resumed operations for the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) — a player in the export sector and a critical part in the growth of the small and medium-scale enterprises.
ECGC offers various products including credit insurance and guarantee services which enable exporters to compete more effectively in export markets, export payments insurance policy, export finance guarantee, general insurance, invoice discounting for exporters, lines of credit cover, suppliers and buyers’ credit insurance cover, domestic credit insurance and Zimbabwe Revenue Authority bonds.
The bank’s subsidiaries include Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR), Homelink which is made up of four business units, namely Proplink, Easylink Money Transfer (Pvt) Ltd, Investlink and Masterlink Capital Services (Pvt) Ltd to serve the economy.
