‘ZWL$80bn gold coins, ZiG tokens sold’

Source: ‘ZWL$80bn gold coins, ZiG tokens sold’ -Newsday Zimbabwe

RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya has said gold coins and gold-backed digital tokens (ZiG tokens) worth over ZWL$80 billion have been sold to date.

Gold coins were introduced last year to stabilise the local currency that was on a free-fall.

Authorities also introduced the ZiG tokens in May this year in one of the many fire-fighting strategies to stabilise the local currency.

“Gold coins have been a great success with a cumulative 38 325 gold coins having been sold to the public as at October 31, 2023,” Mangudya said during a presentation at the pre-budget seminar in Parliament yesterday.

“Since the first issuance on May 12, 373,47kg of ZiG have been purchased for a cumulative value of ZWL$80,14 billion.”

He added: “The positive growth in uptake of ZiG has laid the foundation for the successful launch of the transactional phase which was announced on  October 5, 2023.”

The initial phase of the gold-backed digital tokens entailed the issuance of the value preserving instruments for investment purposes with a vesting period of 180 days and redeemable in the same way as the gold coins.

Authorities have said the tokens offer consumers an alternative store of value to the greenback to reduce reliance on the United States dollar.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa introduced the Zimdollar in 2019 after a decade of dollarisation.

The currency has, however, lost much of its value since reintroduction, forcing authorities to introduce several fire-fighting measures such as the gold tokens.