Zimbabwe ends speculation over defunct local currency.

June 24, 2015 On the fifteenth of June, Zimbabwe’s government began retrieving old currency notes from the public, as part of the process of demonetizing the Zimbabwean dollar. Hyperinflation is the chief reason for the new measure, a terrible situation which the International Monetary Fund described in 2008 as the worst for any country not at war. It is recalled that those in the country had to carry plastic bags filled with bank notes to buy basic goods such as bread and milk, after Robert Mugabe decided about fifteen years ago to take farms from white owners to local farmers, many who were unskilled to propel the agriculture of the country.

Christopher Mugaga, CEO of Zimbabwe’s Chamber of Commerce said:

“A lot of people were quite aggrieved as they felt they lost a lot of money after we had converted in 2009 to United States dollars. As a chamber of commerce we believe this could be the right move by the government in trying to restore sanity not only in the financial sector. As you know for a nation to move forward there are issues that have to be settled and by demonetizing we are taking a position to say this is the true position without lingering on uncertainty which had been defining the whole economy,”

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe says citizens have until September to exchange their remaining quadrillions of local dollars for the newly adopted currency. Some residents in Harare, the country’s capital shared their feelings:

“I think it’s the way to go at least as a nation we know where we stand. Our Zim dollar is not there at the moment and it is not working for us,”

“It really makes no difference because the Zim dollar was as good as useless technically it was not working so…”