by Gift Mawire|@Gkmwa
LONDON Stock Exchange listed Asa Resource Group PLC formerly Mwana Africa , announced that it has been awarded a top producer award by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and received export incentive credits for its Zimbabwe unit, Freda Rebecca gold mine.
The award followed a May 2016 policy introduced by  Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to address the challenges of low productivity and promote export earnings.
The bank said that large mining exporters shall be entitled to a 2.5% export incentive scheme under the $200 million Afreximbank foreign exchange facility provided they do not have overdue export proceeds while other mining exporters or foreign currency earner will be entitled to the 5% export incentive scheme.
In 2016, the mine earned USD1.3 million in export incentive cash credits, Asa said, while the Freda Rebecca mine also won the inaugural “best large-scale top producer award”, which attracts an additional 2.5% export incentive bonus credits for the period January to December 2017.
Freda Rebecca, therefore, will have a total export incentive in the next 12 months of 5%, which translates to more than USD4.5 million in cash rebates from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
“This recognition is a great credit to the efforts of all the employees at Freda Rebecca and is an acknowledgement of the contribution we make to the Zimbabwean mining economy and the local community,” said Chief Executive Yat Hoi Ning.
Asa Resource owns 85% of  Freda Rebecca Gold Mine .
