The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has said that the current foreign currency retention levels on gold export proceeds will be maintained.
This was said by RBZ deputy director, Gertrude Machingura last week at the small-scale miners’ conference organised by the Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation during Mine Entra in Bulawayo.
Machingura was representing Central Bank Governor John Mangudya. She declared that the foreign currency retention scheme was necessitated by the need to secure critical imports. She said:
It’s not every sector in the economy that produces foreign exchange. We only get this foreign exchange as we export so the retention thresholds at 55 per cent to the producers and 45 per cent to the Reserve Bank shall continue to apply.
… For instance, Zesa imports need this foreign currency so we need to surrender something. It’s not peculiar to our country to have exporters surrendering a portion of their export earnings because we all have to work together for the good of our country.
Machingura said that the retention levels may fall in future if foreign currency inflows improve.