Zimbabwe’s government has been urged to take the lead in accepting payments in the new Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) in a bid to boost market and consumer confidence in the currency.
Various stakeholders made the call during the Joint Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion, and Industry and Commerce while receiving evidence on the recently announced 2024 Monetary Policy Statement.
The stakeholders also urged for the prompt release of the ZiG notes onto the market.
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) chief executive Rosemary Mpofu stated: “The council is of the view that all government departments, including the passport offices, fuel stations, the Vehicle Inspection Department and Zimra, among others should take the lead and demand payment for their services in the local currency, ZiGs.
“This does not only help to boost confidence in the local currency, but will send a clear signal to the region and globally that the ZiG is a real and acceptable currency and thus speed up its acceptance in the international markets.”
She noted that delays in introducing the new currency had posed challenges for both businesses and the general public engaged in transactions.
“There is also a need to shorten this lag period to avoid rejection of the new currency before it is introduced onto the market,” she said while noting that prices have also risen since the announcement of the 2024 Monetary Policy Statement.
“Under such circumstances, retailers often take advantage of the sudden increase in demand and tend to raise their prices though this usually happens only for a short period of time during that panic mode.
“CCZ is, therefore, calling for the relevant authorities to closely monitor this abuse of consumers during this transition period,” Mpofu continued.
Furthermore, Denford Mutashu, president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR), called for collaboration among the government, central bank, and industry stakeholders, stressing this collaboration was crucial in addressing specific concerns from the sector.
“While CZR welcomes the new further liberalised interbank foreign exchange system, there are indications from our members that the platform seems to not be well funded. There is an apparent lack of willing sellers of foreign currency, therefore suppliers do not have an effective and meaningful way of using ZiG for imports and, therefore, they are not willing to accept it yet,” he said.
“This issue is one aspect of particular concern that also seems to be fuelling the parallel market, where their exchange rate is US$1:ZiG20, due to the fact that industry has no real downstream use of ZiG.”
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