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Minister Patrick Chinamasa

Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
FINANCE and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said he used to have sleepless nights over the economy but now can sleep soundly with the impending introduction of bond notes. Responding to concerns from legislators in Parliament following the recent announcement by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on the introduction of bond notes in the next two months, the Finance Minister defended the move, saying the country was following a developmental path.

“To tell you the truth, I’m now having sound sleep because I used to have sleepless nights thinking of the finances and the economy of the country,” said Minister Chinamasa. He dismissed the claim that people were opposed to the bond notes.

“I beg to differ from the opinion that people don’t like bond notes. My feeling is that people need an explanation on the use of bond notes. We’ve bankers and retail associations who have said they welcome the bond notes and this shows that the bond notes are a favourite.

“The introduction of the bond notes is merely an extension of the bond coins regime, nothing new and I think that needs to be underlined again and again. The bond coins were supported and are supported by a $50 million facility with Afrexim Bank. In order to do the notes, it’s now a $200 million facility. There’s nothing that has changed,” he said.

The minister said the cash crisis was caused by the appreciation of the value of the United States dollar which is not printed in the country.

“It’s now expensive for people to come into the country and the tourism sector has been affected. Consequently, we now have fewer people coming into the country because the value of the US dollar versus the rand is now skewed. If we were able to re-print the US dollar, we could be able to determine the value,” he said.

He said that the Reserve Bank Governor, John Mangudya was working on ways of fighting externalisation of funds.