Zimbabwe’s government has approved a roadmap to ditch the US dollar in favour of its own gold-backed currency for transactions, a strategy Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube may unveil next week.
“With regard to the modalities required to operate the Zimbabwean rand as legal tender for use in the economy, a roadmap has been drawn up for de-dollarization,” Information Minister Jinfan Muswere said at a news conference after the government was formed in the capital, Harare, on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
A Treasury spokesman said in a text message that Ncube may make an announcement next week, without giving a specific date.
On April 8, Zimbabwe began circulating its new currency, the Zig.
It is noteworthy that the name “Zig” is taken from the English words for Zimbabwean gold.
The move is Zimbabwe’s sixth attempt to have a functioning local currency since 2008, when inflation topped 500 billion percent, according to the International Monetary Fund, rendering it worthless.
The old Zimbabwe dollar has lost four-fifths of its value on the official market since the start of the year, making it the second-worst performing currency in the world.
