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Mr Busisa Moyo

Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
INDUSTRY captains have expressed readiness to receive bond notes saying they are confident the strategy will have a positive impact on the economy.

Addressing members of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) Midlands Chapter in Gweru yesterday, the industry body’s national president, Mr Busisa Moyo, urged Zimbabweans to embrace the new notes, which are due to circulate in the market by end of next month.

Last week the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) announced that an equivalent of $75 million worth of bond notes will be in circulation by December this year in denominations of $2 and $5 notes.

Mr Moyo said the transacting public should have faith in the Government, which has allayed fears of abuse of the facility and suspicions of a return of the dreaded Zimbabwean dollar era.

“The bond will be functional notes and are a welcome development to business. Perception is negative because the people are fearful of going back to the local currency,” said Mr Moyo.

“However, from a functional point, the notes are good like the bond coins, which have been widely accepted. Up to now there has been an unrestrained use of bond coins and they are very useful when it comes to change.”

The CZI head and chief executive officer of United Refineries Limited said the coming in of bond notes would see industry being able to price their products in smaller demoninations like 85c, for instance, with customers walking away with 15c change.

He said the country was currently stuck with the old United States dollars, which he said were being rejected in other countries.

Mr Moyo said he visited South Africa and was disappointed when the US dollars he had were rejected for being dirty.

“We are using dirty old notes, which are not accepted anywhere. The ones we use here are dirty and we have an opportunity of using the bonds coins and notes in the country, with which we can pay toll fees and buy tomatoes,” he said.

Mr Moyo said the bond notes would not be forced on people, as government said, adding that anyone who is not willing to use them was free not to.

“We take comfort in the promise by the Government that there would be a board to run the bond notes. The notes are not compulsory. One can chose to refuse them. For business we should be okay and we welcome the use of the bond notes as long as they are accepted by the people,” he said.

The bond note facility is backed by a $200 million loan secured from Afreximbank. The Government has adopted the approach as part of measures to incentivise production in the economy through a five percent export incentives facility payable in bond notes.

This means the level of circulation of bond notes will be tied to exports. The move is also part of a broad strategy to curb capital flight and externalisation, which has dogged Zimbabwe’s foreign currency reserves since dollarisation in 2009.

@pchitumba1