Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti said that the Government should disband the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and replace it with a currency board.
Biti, who is the Harare East legislator (CCC), said the RBZ has become a rogue and unnecessary institution that is dabbling in quasi-fiscal activities which cost the public.
Speaking at a Zimbabwe Debt Indaba hosted by the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) in Harare, Biti said:
The elephant in the room is the RBZ and under John Panonetsa Mangudya, it has become a rogue institution.
In my respectful opinion, the country does not actually need a reserve bank. Let us have a currency board.
All the RBZ does is dabble in quasi-fiscal activities which cost you and me. Last year we have had two debt assumptions.
The country’s domestic debt has grown from US$1.5 billion in 2015 to US$3.5 billion in December of 2021. That is not good enough, that is a rogue central bank.
If they are incapable of repenting then we must do something. If they are incapable of Damascus moments then we must do something.
And doing something is drastic. The country does not need a central bank; it needs a currency board.