FINANCE and Investment promotion deputy minister Kudakwashe Mnangagwa, yesterday warned businesses rejecting the ZWL$50 note that they risk heavy penalties.
Mnangagwa said this while responding to questions from legislators who wanted to know government’s response to businesses rejecting the ZWL$50 note.
“On the issue of those rejecting our money, as lawmakers and representatives of the people, we should report to the Financial Intelligence Unit or the ministry so that we Investigate and ask why they are not accepting our currency, and sanction them,” he said.
“At the moment we use the local currency and the multi-currency regime and it will end in 2025 ... business people should not reject local currency.
“I want to assure the august House and Zimbabweans that we are looking at this matter. We now have ZiG (digital currency) which is a store of value and an alternative for those who are unable to use bond notes, they can buy ZiG.”
Market watchers are giving the ZWL$50 note very little chance of survival against the greenback as informal traders and commuter transport operators reject it. The demise of ZWL$2, ZWL$5, ZWL$10 and ZWL$20 notes in the not-so-distant past seems to have all sealed the fate of the country’s second largest note as the local currency continues to depreciate, losing over 18% of its value since the August 23 and 24, 2023 elections, to reach its current value of US$1:$5 633,8332 on the interbank market.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa re-introduced the Zimbabwe dollar in 2019 after a decade of dollarisation.
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