The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) says the new ZiG currency has brought more “challenges” for consumers than those they faced before its introduction.
The ZiG, short for Zimbabwe Gold, was launched on 5 April and succeeded the Zimbabwean dollar (ZWL), which had lost 80% of its value this year.
In an interview with NewsDay, CCZ chief executive officer Rosemary Mpofu said people are failing to use the ZiG outside the formal retail sector. She said:
As the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, we were delighted when we heard that we are going to have a currency backed by gold reserves announced by the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
We were very excited because we heard the country had enough gold to back the new Zimbabwe Gold currency.
We very much believed that when the currency is backed by gold and other commodities, it would give more value to our currency.
With that being said, as consumers, we are facing several challenges, which have resulted in us failing to easily accept the new currency.
These challenges have greatly impacted the acceptance of the new local currency by consumers in the country.
It seems the new currency has brought us more challenges than those we faced before the introduction of the Zimbabwe Gold currency.
Mpofu said kombi operators, who used to accept the bond notes, were not eager to accept the new currency and were doubling fares due to a shortage of change. She said:
When boarding public transport on our everyday normal routes, we see that on the same route that we used to travel using US$0,50, we are being charged US$1 because of change challenges.
Sometimes we are forced to buy things that we do not want just for us not to leave our money with public transport operators. The same route that I used to travel using US$1, to and from, the price has doubled.
Mpofu also highlighted that some traders and service providers such as schools and fuel service stations were rejecting the ZiG. She said:
It was announced recently that consumers are now able to buy fuel in local currency and Zera announced the ZiG prices for fuel.
However, we have not seen any fuel station that is accepting ZiG in exchange for fuel.
We did a survey and also consulted with ZERA [Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority] and we discovered that so far, no fuel station is accepting ZiG.
So far, the only place we can use the ZiG currency is in the supermarkets. Why are the service providers rejecting the ZiG currency?
Mpofu appealed to authorities to continue arresting illegal money changers and ensure that service providers and traders use the official exchange rate at all times.
