Retailers applaud RBZ on bond notes

THE business community has hailed the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for managing the circulation of bond notes, saying flooding of the notes into the market could have resulted in inflation.

It has been over a month since the bond notes started circulating on November 28, 2016, with all service providers accepting the surrogate currency at the same value as the United States dollar.

They said the bond notes helped ease the liquidity crunch that the country has been experiencing of late.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers president Mr Denford Mutashu said the acceptance of the bond notes by various service providers was a major achievement by the central bank.

“We are happy with the acceptance rate, which was tremendous across the economy against the backdrop of scepticism that existed before the introduction of these bond notes,” said Mr Mutashu.

“This is attributable to the zeal and will by stakeholders in the general economy, especially the drive by the retail sector spearheaded by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers in conjunction with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

“We have not heard of issues, especially to do with counterfeits and the exchange rate has remained pegged to the US dollar.

r Mutashu said the acceptance of the bond notes was clear evidence that Zimbabweans had confidence in the currency.

“Now we want the RBZ to introduce the $5 bond notes following the general acceptance of the $1 bond coins and the $2 bond notes.

“But our thrust and drive is to ensure that the generality of Zimbabweans move away from demand for cash to plastic money. We want a situation where every business and service provider has a Point of Sale machine to promote plastic money usage,” said Mr Mutashu.

Industrialist and former Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe (EMCOZ) senior vice president Mr Callisto Jokonya said the acceptance of bond notes was encouraging as it helped ease the liquidity crunch.

“What we need to do now is to review whether their introduction has promoted exports and enhanced revenue inflows that we need in foreign currency.

“You will remember when they were introduced the thrust was that they would be an export incentive, which we are in need of to enable industry to keep ticking. But generally speaking, the bond notes have been accepted and they have helped ease the liquidity crunch.

“We are happy with the $2 bond notes that have been released because if they flood the market, it may end up leading to inflation,” said Mr Jokonya.

Affirmative Action Group president Mr Chamu Chiwanza added: “The intro- duction of bond notes has brought in positive results in the market.

“There was a lot of scepticism in the market, people anticipating that there will be a large black market created out of this and that didn’t happen, which means the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, for a change, got it right.

“We are satisfied that the market is responding very well in absorbing the ”bond notes. I am sure even on the export incentive side, we are also experiencing some positive results. But having said that, we still want to make sure that the queues at the banks disappear quickly, we would urge the Governor and the Ministry of Finance to find ways of eradicating this very small problem.”

He also warned against flooding the market with bond notes as the effects would be inflationary.

The bond notes are backed by a $200 loan facility from the Cairo-based Afrexim Bank.