By Ross Moyo
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) will be conducting a transition from the Zimbabwe dollar code to Zimbabwe Gold code. From the country’s independence in 1980, the Zimbabwe Currency Code has changed several times: from ZWD, ZWN, ZWR, to ZWL, and now ZWG.
The announcement was recently made by Rbz Governor Dr John Mushayavanhu on the approval of a new currency code for Zimbabwe’s currency, ZiG, by the International Standard Organization (ISO) 4217 Committee on Currency.
Governor Mushayavanhu released a statement on Monday, July 1st, disclosing that ZiG has been designated with the currency code ZWG and numeric code 924, replacing ZWL and 932 respectively.
The RBZ statement Read:
INTRODUCTION OF ZIMBABWE GOLD (ZiG) CURRENCY CODE (ZWG)
1. Following the Monetary Policy Statement pronouncement on the 5th of April 2024 introducing the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency, the public is advised that, in line with international best practice, the new currency code has been approved by the International Standard Organization (ISO) 4217 Committee on Currency.
2. A currency code is a unique three-letter acronym that identifies a country’s currency in international trading platforms. The first two letters (ZW) represent the country whilst the last letter (G) represents the currency identifier. In addition to the currency code, a currency is also allocated a unique numeric code.
3. The Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency was assigned currency code ZWG and numeric code 924 to replace ZWL and 932 respectively. The minor units of the Zimbabwe Gold currency shall be denominated with two decimal places as ‘cents’. These changes became effective from 25 June 2024 and both codes will circulate concurrently on international platforms for a period of two months up to the 31st of August 2024. This is to allow necessary and seamless system changes in the background.
4. The currency code is used in the foreign exchange market, across banking, payments, businesses, and other systems.
5. The Reserve Bank would want to reiterate that Zimbabwe’s currency name remains Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) and will continue to be used in the country’s notes and coins, and as a reference for all domestic transactions. This is in line with global best practice where there exists a currency code and currency name for each respective country.
6. The Reserve Bank assures that the changes do not affect the transacting public as these are done as back-end system processes. In this regard, the Bank will ensure a seamless transition from the old currency number and currency code to the new ones.
Governor Mushayavanhu maintained that the currency name remains Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG), which will continue to be used for the country’s notes, coins, and all domestic transactions, reassuring Zimbabweans these changes to the currency code and numeric code will not impact their usual or daily transacting.
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