We’re ready for US$ phase out- Old Mutual

Old Mutual says it is ready for a currency switch in 2030 when Zimbabwe transitions to a ZiG-anchored mono-currency system, despite market anxiety surrounding the reform.

The government has disclosed plans to eventually dump the US dollar for local transactions.

This is despite businesses currently registering over 80 percent of earnings in the greenback.

Briefing journalists on the sidelines of the just-ended Zimbabwe Economic Development Conference (Zedcon) in Bulawayo recently, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, said the country has made significant strides since the launch of the roadmap nearly four years ago, culminating in the introduction of Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG), which has now anchored stability for the past year.

“You cannot de-dollarise if you do not have a domestic currency.

“So the first step in our de-dollarisation roadmap, which started literally three years ago, if not four years ago, was to introduce a domestic currency, the Zimbabwe dollar, as you know, and then we struggled to stabilise it because certain fundamentals were not in place,” he said.

However, critics say Zimbabwe will jeopardize the rare bout of economic stability the southern African nation is currently enjoying if it scraps the use of dollars domestically by 2030 as planned.

That’s according to the country’s largest independently-owned asset manager that cautioned the government not to “rock the boat” by following through on its intention to have the gold-back ZiG currency replace the US unit, which now accounts for 85% of payments.