Zimbabwe has raised a $193.3 million loan from South Africa’s Standard Bank, its Zimbabwean unit and Absa Group, to finance public hospitals and clinics, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said.

The Treasury through the Zimbabwe Debt Management Office negotiated the Export Credit insurance Corp of South Africa-backed sovereign loan, Ncube said in an emailed statement. The funds will be used to build five district hospitals and 22 health centers across Zimbabwe’s ten provinces, he said.

The project is due to start in June and be completed over the next three years, according to the finance minister. The deal indicates that “external banks are now extending lines of credit to Zimbabwe’s government, which reflects an improvement in the country’s sovereign credit risk profile,” he said.

The southern African nation has been locked out of international capital markets since defaulting on payments to the World Bank and other multilateral lenders more than two decades ago. It owes creditors more than $13 billion as of October.

Zimbabwe resumed token repayments in 2021 to reopen access to those credit lines and is seeking an International Monetary Fund staff-monitored program to help implement a debt clearance plan overseen by African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina.

Years of underinvestment and economic stagnation have meant that Zimbabwe has one of world’s most run-down health systems. Deteriorating infrastructure, lack of machinery and medical supplies, staff shortages and regular pay strikes are some of the challenges it faces.

More than 4 000 health workers are estimated to have left the country to work abroad since 2021, according to the Health Services Board.