Zimbabwe Retailers to Use RBZ Special Bond Coins

  • Gibbs Dube

The coins that are indexed at par with the United States coins will be distributed to the Zimbabwe public this Wednesday.

The Retailers Association of Zimbabwe says its members have accepted the special bond coins unveiled recently by the country’s central bank designed to ease change problems faced by members of the public.

The president of the organization, Themba Ndebele, says all retailers are expected to use the coins, which were printed in South Africa and delivered in Zimbabwe a week ago.

The coins that are indexed at par with the United States coins will be distributed to the public this Wednesday.

Zimbabwe dumped its local currently in favour of foreign currencies in 2009 after hyper-inflation shot up to more than 500 billion percent.

But change became a challenge for most transactions with businesses usually rounding-off prices and giving consumers vouchers or sweets as change.

Ndebele says transactions will be normalized this week when the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introduces the special bond coins.

Ecuador is another country that uses the US dollar as its currency and has special coins, which have the same denomination and value as US coins.