via Bond coins: RBZ engages kombi operators | The Herald January 12, 2015
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has engaged retailers and the Urban Commuter Omnibus Operators Association to encourage their members to accept bond coins.
Since the inception of the bond coins nearly a month ago, there have been reports that some commuter omnibus operators and indigenous retail shops were sceptical in using bond coins.
The commuter omnibus operators were not accepting the coins from passengers saying they were not being accepted at filling stations.
A fortnight ago, RBZ revealed that only US$2,5 million worth of bond coins out of the US$10 million set aside were presently in circulation.
The RBZ stated that the bond coins which are in one cent, five cent, 10 cent and 25 cent denominations are indexed to the United States dollar hence the need for service providers to accept the coins.
In an interview recently, RBZ Governor Dr John Mangudya said the Central Bank was happy with the uptake of the coins since their injection into the economy late last year.
“We are happy with the uptake of the bond coins. We have met with the Urban Commuter Omnibus Operators Association and the Retailers Association leadership to accept the bond coins as a legal tender from both the passengers and consumers.
“Our systems have noted over the past weeks that they are now embracing the bond coins initiative,” said Governor Mangudya.
In rural areas they have been reports that people had not yet embraced bond coins, with reports circulating that Government was in the process of re-introducing the Zimbabwean dollar.
However, Governor Mangudya at the unveiling ceremony of the bond coins in December last year said that the country had no plans of bringing back the local currency.
Former chairman of the Retailers Association of Zimbabwe (RAZ) Mr Willard Zireva said there was urgent need for Government to engage indigenous retailers countrywide amid revelations that the majority of the indigenous retail shops were not affiliated to their association.
Urban Commuter Omnibus Operators Association president Mr Simbarashe Ngarande has since said that their engagement with the RBZ was now paying dividends.
COMMENTS
“indexed” to the USD? Precisely how? Will RBZ exchange these worthless pieces of metal for USD? I bet not. Whose silly idea was it to pay forex to mint useless coins? Why was they forex not used to buy rand coinage from SA? happy to have a sweetie, a credit note or plastic bag as change. At least it has real value and use. Rocket science. No common sense
How can people not see that this is a Zimdollar in another name. Who controls this money? Zanu PF through its guys at the reserve bank control these coins and when they want more money they just mint some more coins and noone can say anything. This is exactly what they were doing with the Zim dollar – they printed as much money as was needed for their needs resulting in rampant inflation.
I’m sure the Kombi operators would prefer sweets and pens than “Bond coins”
What does it take to have real USA coins?
This is a cheap way of smuggling the ZIM DOLLAR back. Why not simply import more RAND COINS ?
If one have 4 by 25 CENT bond coins , is this equal to 1US$ or 1ZIM$ ? I urge motoring public to use the bond coins to pay toll gate fees only?