THE Bulawayo business community finally embraced bond coins after the intervention of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr John Mangudya last week.
He said skepticism and speculation by the business community in Bulawayo was not helping the country.
Addressing the business community in Bulawayo last week, Dr Mangudya urged the Bulawayo business community to accept bond coins as a form of monetary exchange to ease change shortages that gripped the county since the introduction of the multi currency in late 2009.
He rubbished claims by some circles that the coins were a precursor to the re-introduction of the Zimbabwe dollar.
“When you see bond coins, see them in a much broader sense that of improving competiveness, so we should change our mindset towards accepting these coins,” he said.
“We discourage people from becoming skeptics and make a change for this country as negativity will see us nowhere.”
The special coins are in the denominations of 1c, 5c, 10c and 25c and are part of a five-year US$ 50 million bond that the Government has secured to give them value.
Prior to the introduction of bond coins last year, most supermarkets and other retail outlets had problems of change, offering sweets and other trinkets as change.
Although businesspeople in Bulawayo assured the governor that they were accepting the coins, he was told by vendors at one of the city’s commuter omnibus termini that bond coins were not welcome in Bulawayo.
Commuter omnibuses were also refusing the coins and preferred the Rand coins.
During the meeting, some businesspeople told Dr Mangudya that the bond coins were not circulating in the city as opposed to the South African Rand coins that were in abundance due the city’s proximity to South Africa.
They said bond coins were not accepted as monetary exchange as they procurred goods especially in South Africa and Botswana.
Economic analyst, James Moyo said due to the abundance of Rand coins in the streets and supermarkets of Bulawayo, the issue of change has never been a problem therefore bond coins would be embraced with some form of skepticism by the people of Bulawayo.
Ironically after the Governor’s address on the need to embrace the bond coins as opposed to the Rand, the Bulawayo Public Transport Association (BUPTA) upped their fares from R5 to R6 while those with bond coins will part with 50 cents.