Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has described his country’s economy as “dead” as he promises to bring it back to life.
On Tuesday Mnangagwa told the country’s parliament that Zimbabweans will have to be patient with him whiles he works hard to bring the economy back from the “dead”.
Zimbabwe is facing serious economic challenges with surging inflation and lack of physical cash for business transactions.
After taking over from the late Robert Mugabe in 2017, many had hoped for better economy and significant transformation.
But it has been tough moments for Zimbabweans so far. President Mnangagwa said in a state of the nation address in parliament he is “aware of the pain being experienced by the poor and the marginalised.
Getting the economy working again from being dead will require time, patience, unity of purpose and perseverance.”
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) boycotted his speech.
Last weekend, Zimbabwe’s central bank banned mobile money agencies from facilitating cash withdrawals or deposits.
Only very few banks are able to provide depositors with physical cash.
Zimbabweans have now resorted to mobile money agencies who are reportedly selling cash at a premium illegally.
The country in 2008 abandoned its own currency after inflation peaked at 500 billion percent that year.
Zimbabwe introduced new measures last year and this year, and announced the return to its own currency called the Zimbabwe dollar.
The government banned the use of foreign currencies for local transactions hoping to rebuild the economy.
Source: Africafeeds.com
