Source: AFP
Zimbabwe’s new gold-backed currency got off to a chaotic start with shops only accepting US dollars on Tuesday and angry Zimbabweans queuing outside banks for hours to access their savings.
ZiG — short for Zimbabwe Gold — officially began trading on Monday, days after it was announced that it would replace the Zimbabwean dollar, which has fallen in value over the past year, pushing inflation through the roof.
But many in the country were not ready for the transition.
Most banks had their systems offline on Tuesday as they worked on their transition to ZiG.
This caused long queues outside some branches in the capital Harare, with hundreds of people waiting for hours to withdraw cash or access their funds.
“I spent all morning… waiting for the bank to come back online,” one grumpy account holder told AFP.
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“No success. I’m stuck. They say they have no idea when they’ll be back online.”
Useless one night
The currency swap saw the old banknotes — already of little value — become worthless overnight.
In Harare’s Kabuzuma suburb, children played in the streets with cash.
Other bills were abandoned on the sidewalks of the central business district, no one stopping to pick them up.
Getting new ones was impossible.
On Saturday, the central bank said they were still being printed and would only be available on April 30.
Some people were left stranded as Harare’s public transport operators refused to accept Zimbabwean dollars, charging instead an expensive flat-rate fare of $1 — double the usual cost in local currency for short journeys.
“We are running short,” complained Giorgos Goliatis, a passenger.
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![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/c6a007a29a243760.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
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Many shops and street vendors similarly only accepted greenbacks, giving cookies or candy as change, due to a lack of coins.
Julius Musa, a shopkeeper in the capital, told AFP he had stopped accepting Zimbabwean dollars after noticing customers rushing to his and other shops to “throw away” the old notes.
The central bank hopes the ZiG, which is backed by a basket of reserves that includes foreign currency and precious metals — mainly gold — will help stabilize the long-beleaguered economy.
The Zimbabwe dollar has lost almost 100 percent of its value against its US counterpart over the past year – leading to high levels of inflation, which after climbing well into triple digits, was still at 55 percent in March.
Rising prices have piled pressure on Zimbabwe’s 16 million people who already face widespread poverty, high unemployment and severe drought caused by the El Niño weather pattern.
Source: AFP