RBZ deputy
governor Innocent Matshe allayed fears over the de-dollarisation roadmap.
He revealed
that the central bank no longer has outstanding foreign currency payment
receipts, indicating that the monetary authorities have paid up US$60 million,
which was outstanding from the auction system.
“I can assure
you that over the last 12 months, the rate at which we accumulated these
results has been nothing but something that I can say was outstanding,” Matshe
said.
He was speaking
during the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe 2025 State of the Mining Industry
breakfast seminar in Harare yesterday.
“Why do I say
that? Right now, we are standing at about a billion [in US dollars],” he said.
“That’s
something that we have been able to do in the past year.
“What it tells
you is that within the next three years, minimum, we will have the minimum
import capital that we need.”
He applauded
the mining sector for contributing to Zimbabwe’s foreign currency reserves.
“This country
is generating a lot more foreign currency, that is really important,” Matshe
said.
“Foreign
currency or capital equipment or investment in mining will appear as if it’s a
problem from the market side.
“But it’s not a
problem from the market side. It’s a problem from external sources of capital.
“So in terms
of, if you have funding and you need foreign currency, you will get foreign
currency.
“So in terms of
the anxieties around monocurrency, let me be as clear as I can be, that in most
countries, they use their own local currency.”
Matshe said the
transition towards a mono-currency regime started two years ago, adding that it
was expected to be complete in 2030.
He, however,
said the transition to monocurrency required stability, including low and
stable inflation levels.
“There are
global guidelines. There are standard and regional guidelines. Those are the
guidelines that we follow in terms of the law, in terms of inflation,” he said.
“The second is
adequate foreign currency reserves that will be able to cover at least three to
six months of interest.”
Matshe said
there was also need for increased demand for local currency to achieve
mono-currency success, adding that it was critical that the country
recalibrated the percentage of government obligations that were paid in local
currency.
“We have been
fortunate that our financial sector is in favour, and we continue to monitor
activity in this sector to make sure that stability regains. Then, of course,
we have two other critical elements,” he noted.
“The first are
efficient and secure. I am glad to say that these detailed systems that we have
in our market are very secure.
“However, we
are on a programme to digitalise all of our systems. Most of them are very
slow. They are manual. They are not open.
“And lastly, of
course, we need fiscal and monetary political aid that we have seen over the
last few months and this has enabled the stability that we go through right
now.”
Matshe also
revealed that RBZ was able to clear its outstanding invoices from the foreign
currency market after collecting enough
resources for the forex market.
“Just this
morning, I can tell you that we were able to clear all outstanding invoices
from the invoices, which is something between US$10 million and US$60 million,”
Matshe said.
“Now, this
we’ve been doing consistently over the past year or so. So foreign currency is
not a problem, so all anxieties around foreign currency should not be
there.
“There is
absolutely no reason for miners to worry about foreign currency.” Newsday
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