Zimbabwe's Jewel Bank said on Wednesday it had secured a 10 million U.S. dollar loan from Africa Export Import Bank (Affrexibank) to finance fuel and food imports.

Bank managing director, Nyasha Makuvise said the loan was signed this week, and would run for one year with a renewal option.

This is the latest in a series of offshore lines of credits the Jewel Bank has raised for essential imports, particularly fuel.

Last year, the bank arranged a 15 million fuel facility with a top South African bank, and has also financed oil imports from Libya.

"We signed the agreement (with Affrexibank) yesterday (Tuesday), and this expires after a year with an option of renewal," Makuvise said.

The African bank has emerged as one of the biggest foreign lenders to Zimbabwe in the last few years, following the withdrawal of most international bilateral and multilateral financiers.

Last week, Interfin Merchant Bank announced it had secured a 10 million dollar line of credit from Affrexibank to finance exporters.

After a severe drought in the 2004/2005 farming season, the country has been forced to import a huge amount of food, notably from South Africa.

The central bank said on Tuesday food imports last year cost 135 million dollars. But the imports are likely to slacken, or even end in two months when early harvests begin to come on stream.

Source: Xinhua