The Minister of Finance and Investment Promotion, Prof. Mthuli Ncube, announced on Tuesday that the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) is now the official unit of exchange for transactions.
According to Prof. Ncube, plans are underway to implement regulations to ensure businesses adhere to the official exchange rate.
Since its launch in early April, the ZiG has maintained stability on the official market. However, it has encountered challenges on the parallel market, where traders charge a premium of 65% above the official rate to acquire dollars.
Some supermarkets have also been observed charging a premium above the market rate of ZiG 13.6 per U.S. dollar for customers using the new currency, while informal traders have shown reluctance to accept ZiG.
In a statement, Finance Minister Prof. Mthuli Ncube emphasized the government’s commitment to enforcing orderly pricing.
He announced plans to introduce regulations to ensure that only the official exchange rate is used for pricing goods and services.
“To ensure orderly pricing, the government will soon introduce the necessary regulations to ensure that no exchange rate other than the official rate will be used for the pricing of all goods and services,” Prof. Ncube said.
Efforts to support the ZiG’s stability have been ongoing since its launch, including crackdowns on illegal foreign currency traders initiated by authorities last month.
The introduction of the ZiG marks Zimbabwe’s fourth attempt at establishing a local currency within a decade. The move comes after the country abandoned the Zim dollar last month due to a 70% depreciation since the beginning of the year.