Monetary Confusion: Bond Notes Are Still Legal Tender
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, Dr John Mushayavanhu, has announced that the Zimbabwe dollar (ZWL) is still legal tender.
Speaking this morning on Star FM, the Governor said the local Zimbabwe dollar (ZWL) are no longer expiring. They will remain in circulation until further notice.
Dr Mushayabanhu explained:
“We are currently allowing them to co-circulate. And we will let the market know when the volumes of bond notes coming through have thinned out. We will then advise a date to say, ‘After such and such a date, we will no longer be accepting bond notes.’
“But for now, let them come through. We don’t want a situation where someone is sitting on bond notes and they are deep in the rural areas. We want to make sure that at the time we then announce, we will have collected as much as we can. Then we give a final deadline.”
Monetary Confusion: Bond Notes Are Still Legal Tender
The ZWL will operate along the ZiG, whose notes came into circulation on Tuesday, 30 April.
Dr Mushayavanhu introduced the new currency on 5 April 2024.
When the Governor announced the ZiG, he said the Zimbabwe dollar would operate for 21 days. This was later extended to 30 April.
The monetary policy shifts have caused confusion on the market with the market already discarding and rejecting the bond notes creating a situation where cash transactions were pegged at one American dollar.
In the past weeks, commuter omnibus operators, vendors and traders of small wares have been struggling to provide change to their customers which has resulted in either loss of business or the shortchanging of the buyers.
Dr John Mushayavanhu also revealed that the central bank introduced smaller denominations of the ZiG on Tuesday.
The biggest note now in circulation is the ZiG10. Some coins are also now circulating in the market.
