Zimbabwe dollar coming back but not now

The Zimbabwe dollar is coming back but not now but it will surely return, Deputy Finance Minister Terence Mukupe told the Senate on Thursday.

He said it might even come back with a different name or currency.

Mukupe was responding to a question by Senator Charles Tawengwa who wanted to know if the Zimbabwe dollar was coming back and when people will start using it.

“I will reiterate the words said by the President, Cde. E. D. Mnangagwa in Namibia,” Mukupe said in response. 

“He said that for us to be a sovereign state we need to have our own currency.  Where we are going is that our Zimbabwe dollar shall return.  It might come back with a different name or currency but the Zimbabwe dollar will surely return. 

“For us to have our own currency, there are certain systems that should be put in place.  At the moment, the money that we need for imports is more than our exports.  Our exports should exceed the imports that we are bringing into the country; what is known as import cover.”

Q &A:

*HON. SEN. TAWENGWA:  Thank you Mr. President.  Minister of Finance, I am sorry that we keep on posing questions to you but I believe that is why you are here.  As the Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Development, we have an issue that is troubling us especially on social media.  This is concerning the Zimbabwe dollar.  Where are we and where are we going?  If the Zimbabwe dollar is going to come back, when will we begin using it? I thank you.  

*THE DEPUTY MINISTER PF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. MUKUPE):  I thank you for your question. I will reiterate the words said by the President, Cde. E. D. Mnangagwa in Namibia.  He said that for us to be a sovereign state we need to have our own currency.  Where we are going is that our Zimbabwe dollar shall return.  It might come back with a different name or currency but the Zimbabwe dollar will surely return.  For us to have our own currency, there are certain systems that should be put in place.  At the moment, the money that we need for imports is more than our exports.  Our exports should exceed the imports that we are bringing into the country; what is known as import cover.  If import cover is probably at six per month, we will now be in a position whereby we can have our own currency. 

Another thing that must happen is that when we look at our Reserve Bank, there are certain things that we must put within our legislation because currently our legislation says that if the Government is broke, it can go to the Reserve Bank to get a loan there in order to finance its programmes.  That should come to an end.  That is why you find the overdraft facility we have with the Reserve Bank is around $1 billion.  That overdraft facility should go back to zero. 

The other thing that is supposed to happen is that we need a currency board that will look into the issues of money and will consider the money that we can put into circulation, not that the Governor of the Reserve Bank can just decide how much money should circulate in the market.  So, we need to amend our legislation. For all this to happen, our country should actually reduce its unemployment rate so that we have more jobs.  If we are able to do that, we will have enough money to circulate.  However, I believe with the term that Hon. President Mnangagwa is about to get into in July, I am sure that by 2023 we will have our own currency here in Zimbabwe – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –  I thank you. 

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