Private sector against third party insurance takeover

“It is not him that will influence these promises he made. I do not think his predecessors, Gono and Mangudya, deliberately printed money without knowing what it meant,” Mugano said.

“It is not him who decides on the printing of money, and external influences on the RBZ decisions, it is the power of the political actors.

“So, my submission is that for him to be truthful to his word, it is the assurance that the political will, which he was not given on his duress status and he is not going to be a genius that can do something like that.”

Former Finance minister Tendai Biti said the new governor was set to fail as he has introduced the new ZiG currency without adequate reserves to support it.

“What caused money printing was not what happened at the RBZ,” Biti said.

“It is because the Finance minister cannot live within his means.

“Zimbabwe’s economic crisis is not a monetary crisis on which a reserve bank governor can influence; it is actually a fiscal crisis, fiscal indiscipline, and lack of fiscal consolidation.”

Economist Prosper Chitambara encouraged the government to exercise fiscal discipline and prudence, controlling public spending to sustain the new currency.

“I think we need, just for drought mitigation interventions, we need more than US$2 billion,” he said.

“So really that tells us that there’s going to be an increase in public spending this year, occasioned by the drought,” he noted.

“The issue of fiscal discipline, fiscal prudence, controlling public spending, obviously that’s a key part of the sustainability of any currency.

“Discipline itself is also important and implementing institutional reforms.

“I think that will go along in terms of restoring confidence in the local currency and ultimately confidence in the local economy.”

The structured currency is anchored on a composite basket of foreign currency and precious metals (mainly gold) held as reserves for this purpose by the reserve bank.