THE introduction of bond coins by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) saw a slow uptake as most retailers were by yesterday still to collect them from their banks.
BUSINESS REPORTER
A snap survey by NewsDay showed that the coins were yet to circulate in most retail shops.
An official at Spar Sam Levy indicated that they were not yet disbursing the coins to customers, but would start today.
“We received the coins from our bank (yesterday), we will be disbursing them tomorrow,” the official said.
An official at Bon Marché Sam Levy also said the supermarket was not disbursing the coins as yet.
TM Supermarket also indicated that they were not issuing bond coins.
Some shops in the capital were disbursing the coins to members of the public as change.
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The coins come at a time when rand coins can easily be accessed in many supermarkets unlike in the past years when the country introduced the multi-currency system.
The rand coins have, however, seen customers losing out as most retailers would then use the cross rates which prejudiced the customers.
The bond coins are expected to reduce change problems in the economy as well as reduce the prices of commodities in the market that have been pegged at a minimum of $1 in most cases due to the unavailability of change in the economy.
Meanwhile, RBZ governor John Mangudya said the bond coins had been distributed to all banks and the response had been good.
“We are quite pleased by the way the banks have responded to this initiative of giving value to consumers,” Mangudya said.
The coins were introduced yesterday by the central bank and are at par with the United States coins and they are in US dollar denominations.
The denominations are 1c, 5c, 10c,25c and 50c. The 50c coins shall be released into the market in March 2015 due to the prerequisite security features needed in the design and manufacture of the coin.
The quantity that has been procured is 0,2% of total deposits and the $50 million facility and will translate to 1%.
Mangudya said the initial amount to be made available is $10 million worth of bond coins to be released into the market between December and March 2015.
