Zimbabwe offers £2.7 billion compensation to 4,500 white farmers whose land was seized under Robert Mugabe

Zimbabwe on Wednesday signed a US$3.5 billion compensation agreement with white farmers whose land was seized over 20 years ago under the country's controversial reforms.

Then-president Robert Mugabe forcibly took more than 4,000 farms from the country's 4,500 white large-scale commercial farmers.

The compensation is for built structures including farmhouses and irrigation systems on the farms which were redistributed to landless blacks.

But as the cash-strapped government does not have the funds to make the payouts, a committee made up of farmers and donors has been tasked with raising the money.

In the agreement we have given ourselves 12 months to run around the world, around Zimbabwe to think of ways of raising this funding, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said at the signing ceremony in Harare.

We are determined that we achieve that. It's also about pledges not necessarily about cash being put on the table. It's about commitment.