Addressing Constraints for Effective Project Finance for Infrastructure Projects in Emerging Economies – the Case of Zimbabwe

Abstract

The infrastructure deficit in developing countries is vast and current developmental initiatives fail to meet the requirements. There is a need for housing, clean water, sewerage facilities, transport and telecommunications infrastructure. The development of infrastructure requires large amounts of funding, which could be a project or non-recourse finance. The levels of project finance allocated to developing countries are much smaller compared to the developed world. The purpose of this paper is to determine the critical success factors for accessing project finance for infrastructure development in a developing country, Zimbabwe. This study employed the quantitative approach using a survey questionnaire to address various aspects that are important when lenders advance project finance. The questionnaire was distributed to participating organizations comprised of lenders, borrowers and investors with the higher numbers being borrowers. These organizations include banks in Zimbabwe that offer project finance for infrastructure, Pension funds which invest in infrastructure, Multilateral agencies operating in Zimbabwe, and Municipalities of major cities in Zimbabwe. The interrater reliability of the individual factors was calculated. Also, the aggregate interrater reliability for the different attributes was determined using Cronbach's alpha value. A total of 33 factors under five attributes were identified: governmental, financing, project, special purpose vehicle, and politics and economics were identified as being critical for accessing project finance. These factors were ranked according to their significance index or importance. Only 12 factors were considered as extremely important as critical success factors for project financing in Zimbabwe. The contribution of this study is to provide government, project finance agencies, private sector and other stakeholders interested in infrastructure projects with a list of the most important critical success factors for infrastructure projects in a developing country.