zimbabwes upcoming presidential election and compensation of white farmers whose land was seized two decades ago are key to efforts to restructure its crippling debt the african development bank chief said monday african development bank afdb president akinwumi adesina and mozambiques expresident joaquim chissano are leading efforts to help zimbabwe reengage with the west to clear its 83 billion bilateral and multilateral debt the success of the efforts we have all put into this process will depend on what happens with the upcoming presidential elections adesina said at debt resolution talks with president emmerson mnangagwa in harare he said the international community will be watching very closely the vote the full weight of reengagement with the international community will depend on this and the entire electoral process that guarantees a credible election success on the political and electoral reforms and a free and fair election are crucial to clear the pathway towards arrears clearance and debt resolution for zimbabwe he added rights groups and opposition parties have complained of a clampdown ahead of elections whose date is yet to be set chissano a respected statesman said holding free and fair elections and settling the issue of compensation for white former commercial farmers were among lowhanging fruits in advancing dialogue with the west and international financial institutions harvesting these lowhanging fruits is critical as they are likely to trigger decisive action towards arrears clearance and debt resolution he said chissano and adesina last week met members of the us congress state department treasury among other agencies to discuss zimbabwe adesina revealed that the afdb is working with zimbabwe to develop innovative financial instruments and structures that can be used to frontload the mobilization of the 35 billion for compensations without getting into further debt it is important that we find a mechanism to try to fasttrackthe payment of these compensations zimbabwes late expresident robert mugabe launched land reforms in 2000 grabbing whiteowned farms to reverse a historical land ownership imbalance that favoured the white minority population more than 4000 of zimbabwes 4500 white commercial farmers were evicted from their properties which were given to black tenants but in 2020 mnangagwa who succeeded mugabe following a militaryled coup signed a 35 billion deal with dispossessed farmers to compensate them for infrastructure developments on their former land