Bloomberg reported that the Libyan Foreign Bank has filed a lawsuit against Zimbabwe’s finance minister and the country’s national oil company, seeking repayment of debts exceeding $100 million.
The case was filed last November before a British court and relates to loans granted under a credit facility dating back to 2001.
The Libyan Foreign Bank stated that Zimbabwe failed to meet its financial obligations, noting that the Zimbabwean oil company paid only $5.5 million in four installments between 2013 and 2023, while the current value of the outstanding debt, including interest, has exceeded $100 million.
According to the Libyan Foreign Bank, Zimbabwe’s finance minister at the time the agreement was signed approved the arrangement under which the ministry would guarantee the debt. The bank added that Zimbabwean government officials have repeatedly acknowledged the outstanding debt since 2005 in official correspondence with the lender.
Zimbabwe faces near-total exclusion from international capital markets due to unpaid debts of at least $21 billion, including arrears owed to the World Bank and other multilateral lenders, accumulated over a period of 26 years.
Libyan Foreign Bank
The Libyan Foreign Bank is Libya’s state-owned financial institution for international banking and investment, established in 1972. It was created to manage the country’s overseas financial activities and foreign currency reserves, playing a key role in Libya’s economic relations abroad. Historically, it has been central to handling oil revenues and facilitating international trade for the Libyan state.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a country in southern Africa, named after the ancient stone city of Great Zimbabwe, which was the capital of the medieval Kingdom of Zimbabwe from the 11th to 15th centuries. This kingdom was a major center for trade and is renowned for its impressive dry-stone architecture, most notably the Great Enclosure. The modern nation gained independence from British colonial rule in 1980.
British court
The British court system, with roots in medieval common law, has evolved over centuries into a hierarchical structure headed by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. It is globally influential, particularly for its development of precedent-based common law and the adversarial trial system.
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution founded in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference to help rebuild nations after World War II. Its primary mission has since evolved to focus on providing loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects and reducing poverty.
