Said Wedza North legislator David Musabayana:

“I want to thank the Government of Zimbabwe for coming up with a Monetary Policy Statement that is pro-poor – [HON. MEMBERS: Aaah, Aaah!] – because we know there are very few people in this nation who were accessing the US$.  The US$ was only accessible to those people who were doing direct exports and to those who had connections to certain sectors of the economy.  The decision by the Government to de-dollarise the economy came at the correct time

we also propose that we have a currency board to restore confidence in the financial sector.  The currency board will make sure that there is proper allocation of currency to the needy sectors of the economy, mining, agriculture and other capital projects.  We also want to ensure that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is independent in its operations.  The independence of the RBZ will also inspire confidence with our monetary sector. 

          If we do not have a properly constituted board that manages currency in our economy, we will also end up with issues to do with corruption where certain people are given preference or jump queues when they approach the bank.  So, we want a situation where there is proper allocation of the available foreign currency to the needy sectors of the economy.  To underpin why I think the Government took a correct and bold stance in going back to the Zimbabwean dollar; we have many other nations in the world which have taken the same route; Sierra Leone’s Government in 2015 expressed the desire to de-dollarise the economy and the Central Bank Governor of that country, Dr. Kaifala Marah took bold steps to de-dollarise the economy.  There was a presidential appeal where they chose to de-dollarise the economy.  Mexico and Pakistan also implemented a more rapid and forced de-dollarisation and it was sustainable. However, this comes at a cost because of macro-economic imbalances that happened and there was huge capital flight and less financial intermediation.