Zimbabwe to Get Over Half of $60 Million Payout for El Niño-Hit African Nations

Zimbabwe will get over half of an expected $60 million insurance pay out meant for four African nations as it reels from the impact of El Niño-induced drought that’s already slashed corn output and led to a state of disaster being declared.

Earlier this month, the African Union’s climate insurance agency said it will pay out at least $60 million to Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to help them offset the impact of the weather catastrophe. The money will equal a fraction of what it needed to alleviate the impact.

“Zimbabwe will get $32 million from insurance pay out in a few weeks’ time,” Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said on Saturday. “We have already identified the districts where we will give these as cash pay outs and also in food.”

The southern African nation is one of the worst affected in the region with 77% of its corn output devastated, according to most recent estimates.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs last week made an appeal for $429 million to help Zimbabwe.

The government also plans to import grains to complement private sector efforts, Ncube said, although it has corn reserves stored in Grain Marketing Board silos. Zimbabwe’s private grain millers are seeking corn imports to help avert hunger.

More than half of the Zimbabwe’s population of about 15 million will need food aid until March next year, the cabinet said on Tuesday.

Photograph: A field of failed corn crops due to drought at a farm in Glendale, Zimbabwe, on Monday, March 11, 2024. A swathe of southern Africa about the size of France suffered the driest February in decades, killing crops and precipitating a power shortage that threatens to hit copper mines in a key producing region. Photo credit: Cynthia R Matonhodze/Bloomberg

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