Zimbabweans love gold coins and are holding onto the value preserving asset after the first maturity in January, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya said yesterday.
The gold coins were introduced last year to mop excess local currency liquidity, blamed for fuelling the parallel market exchange rate resulting in the sharp depreciation of the local currency.
As of July 14, 36 059 gold coins had been sold.
“The first maturity after the 180 days vesting period was January 25, 2023 and only 769 gold coins (2% of the total sold) have been redeemed so far, bearing testimony that it is indeed considered a store of value,” Mangudya said in his mid-term monetary policy released yesterday.
He said RBZ was at an advanced stage of rolling out gold-backed digital tokens for transactional purposes.
Gold-backed digital tokens were introduced in May and the initial phase entailed the issuance of the value preserving instruments for investment purposes with a vesting period of 180 days and redeemable in the same way as the gold coins.
Mangudya said the tokens would be rolled out in the second phase under the code ZiG, which stands for Zimbabwe Gold, for transactional purposes.
“It is envisaged that the transactional phase will see GBDT [gold-backed digital tokens] complementing the use of the US dollar in domestic transactions. The bank will conduct appropriate awareness campaigns in all national provinces and districts of the country to educate the public on the use and benefits of GBDT,” Mangudya said, adding that the tokens would form “the basis for the development of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) since ZiG in its current form and design exhibits most of the characteristics of a CBDC”.
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As of July 21, 2023, RBZ had conducted 11 issuances of the tokens.
It received 590 applications to purchase tokens valued at $50,50 billion and US$7 794,87. RBZ issued 325 024 524 milligrammes equivalent to 325,02kg of gold as a result.
The gold-backed digital tokens were introduced as part of measures to mop excess liquidity and offer the public an investment alternative.
Their issuance came barely a year after RBZ introduced gold coins to stabilise the local currency.
