Last week, Zimbabwe’s central bank chief John Mangudya said a new currency will be introduced within two weeks to combat liquidity shortages in the country’s economy. 

The aim of the new currency will also be to re-establish control over monetary policy following years of ‘dollarisation’.

Speaking to a number of journalists in Harare on Tuesday, Mangudya said that the currently unnamed currency will have coins and notes denominations, and will have a maximum value of five Zimbabwe dollars ($0.25). 

“We are going to be releasing money into circulation. To be precise, within the next two weeks, we will have the new currency,” said Mangudya. 

The central bank chief added that the new currency would trade together with the bond notes and the coins, and would carry the same value as the surrogate currencies. 

Mangudya supported the bank’s decision to carry a note worth only five Zimbabwe dollars as the highest denomination due to the country’s hyperinflation, adding that the aim was to standardise denominations already present in the market. 

In accordance with the law, Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa must approve the creation of a new monetary unit. Once agreed upon, the minister of finance would then release a verdict, leading to the printing of the currency, said Mangudya.