Zimbabwe’s Central Bank Chief declared: “We Don’t Believe in Cryptocurrencies”.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is still hostile to cryptocurrencies, but it is interested in building its own digital money, according to its governor.

John Mangudya, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), has stated that his organization is interested in developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). However, the central bank does not believe in cryptocurrency, he stressed.

According to Bloomberg, Mangudya made these statements during an interview with renowned Zimbabwean journalist Trevor Ncube. Mangudya presented the central bank’s views on how it expects to follow in the footsteps of other nations that have rolled out CBDCs in statements that looked to be a reiteration of the government’s previously announced position on digital currency.

He elaborated:

As a central bank, we don’t believe in cryptocurrencies. We believe in central bank digital currency which is basically trying to say ‘how do we have an e-Zimbabwe dollar as opposed to cryptocurrency.’

As previously reported, a Zimbabwean government official stated in November that his agency is gathering information about CBDCs and cryptocurrencies. The official’s comments fueled rumors that Zimbabwe is likely to accept cryptocurrency. However, the country’s information minister later rejected these reports.

Rather than adopting cryptocurrencies, the RBZ is going to deploy a team to Nigeria, the first African country to implement a CBDC, according to the article. According to the article, the team would learn from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) experiences with the e-naira rollout.

Aside from the planned trip to Nigeria, Mangudya stated that the RBZ already has its own fintech team, which he claims is hard at work. The governor stated that the central bank’s strategy is to guarantee that the RBZ does not fall behind other central banks that are developing their own CBDCs.

Patrick

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