President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said his Government may enact laws against the use of foreign currencies to ensure that Zimbabweans embrace the Zimbabwe dollar.
In an interview with the Third Eye and Brick By Brick magazines this week, Mnangagwa ruled out dollarisation saying there was no turning back to using other countries’ currencies.
He said the multi-currency system was adopted to deal with hyperinflation but there is no country that can develop without its own currency. He said:
What we might do is legislate against foreign currency to make sure we use our own currency.
Our people must know that our currency is there to stay but foreign currencies of other countries are not there to stay.
Calls for full dollarisation have been amplified in recent weeks following the precipitous devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar on both the formal and informal market.
The majority of businesses, especially those in the informal sector, are no longer accepting Zimbabwe dollars, instead insisting on foreign currency.
This has resulted in trade unions demanding USD salaries and wages for workers to make ends meet.
Treasury and the central bank have ruled out dollarisation, with Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor John Mangudya saying Zimbabwe has no capacity to fully dollarise. Mangudya said:
We have no capacity to dollarise because the money in the banks is not ours.
It belongs to the exporters so that they can export more. Now people are always confused that this US$11 billion is ours, no it’s not ours
The numbers don’t lie. If you can measure it, you can manage it. Ours is 25% which is supposed to go through the rest of the economy.
That’s what we use for auction, for reserves and for paying debts. That’s what it is.
More: Pindula News