Zimbabweans may soon be able to change ZiG to US dollars and vice-versa on their phones

Zimbabweans will soon be able to change their ZiG to United States dollars and vice-versa on their mobile phones, Deputy Finance Minister David Kuda Mnangagwa told the Senate yesterday.

He said this as the government passed regulations that providers of goods and services must use the official interbank exchange rate for all transactions or face a fine of ZiG200 000 or more.

Mnangagwa said that to deal with the black market, the government and the private sector were working on a solution where people could change small amounts on their mobile phones provided they had mobile money accounts.

He said this facility would cut out blackmarket money changers.

Mnangagwa said one could not, however, completely eradicate black market activities as there were some people that did not want their transactions to be traced such as money launderers and tax avoiders.

“Mr. President, in any reform process such as we have now, you will always have three groupings of people.  

“The first group of people will always be the ones who will abide by the law because they are stickers with the law.  Whether it is a good law or a bad law, they will always abide by the law. 

“The second group Mr. President, is one that lags behind as they seem to understand what it means to them, what the reforms will do to their business, how it affects and how they trade.  

“Then there is a third group that will always be defiant regardless of how good the law is. The Hon. Senator is referring to the last one.  These are the defiant ones…..  

“Mr. President, we will have a group of money launderers.  Money launderers is a group of people who would have gotten money through nefarious methods.  They might have missed proceeds and are not sensitive to the exchange rate that they convert their money into USD cash that they can hide from the law.  These people will always be there and there, in any country that you go to. “

Q & A:

HON. SEN. R. NDLOVU:  Supplementary Mr. President.  Minister, what measures are you putting in place to stop these middlemen?  The middlemen are saying right now their rate is 20 and the official rate is 13.  What are you doing to stop those street shenanigans?  These same people allege the resources they have, they get from Government people.  I do not know whether it is the truth or not.  I thank you.

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