UPDATED: Zim To Have New Currency By December 2019 - Mnangagwa
President Emmerson Emmerson Mnangagwa said that Zimbabwe will have its own currency by the end of this year.
Speaking in Southlea Park on Friday morning where he was leading a national Clean Up campaign, Mnangagwa said the country cannot develop economically whilst using other countries’ currencies.
He added that the multi-currency regime is problematic in that it causes the value of the local RTGS Dollar to collapse as people chase the greenback. He said:
Between 2008 and 2009 our country’s currency lost value and some people became billionaires or trillionaires due to high inflation.
At the time Government decided to adopt the multi-currency regime where we started using, the US dollar, Rand, the British Pound or Pula for transacting.
It was a policy measure to address the challenges that were being faced then. We, however, cannot continue going forward without our own currency.
South Africa has its own currency and when you go there with the US dollar or Euro you would have to convert it to the Rand before you can transact.
The same applies to Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique and the UK. A country cannot develop using other nations’ currency.
A currency is only printed by its owners and the only way to get it is through exports, Diaspora remittances or foreign investments but as a country, we should have our own currency and we have embarked on that journey (to have a local currency).
Mnangagwa revealed that the introduction of the new currency will mean that foreign currency will no longer be used in local transactions.