Zimbabwe Government Told to Stop Selling Gold and Start Accumulating Gold Reserves

According to Joseph Mverecha, the head of strategy at AFC Commercial Bank, the Government should stop selling gold and instead accumulate gold reserves given the uncertain geopolitical environment.

"You don't sell gold reserves in this environment. You accumulate it, you build foreign currency reserves in gold," he said.

A two-day conference organized by the Munhumutapa School of Commerce at Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) featured Mverecha as the keynote speaker.

For any economy to grow, currency stability, US$ foreign currency, and gold reserves are essential.

Mverecha pointed out that gold reserves provide a currency with more stability than US dollars. Therefore, he decried the Zimbabwe Government's decision to sell its gold reserves at a time when central banks around the world were buying gold.

The Ukraine war caused Central Banks to buy 1136 tonnes of gold in 2022, the highest amount since 1950, with a value of US$70 billion.

“We know that the US$ will not collapse anytime soon, but we want alternative reserves in our country.” In addition to foreign currency reserves, gold is the thing we must have. The goal is not to close the doors to the US$, but to build forex in US$, but to build our gold reserves,” said Mverecha.

Under the theme "Strengthening Sustainable Economic Development through Entrepreneurship, Science and Innovation", the conference began on Thursday and ended on Friday.

A long-term plan for currency stability requires the accumulation of gold. At present, central banks are buying gold while we are selling it. It is important because we are entering an uncertain geopolitical environment, and we do not know how the Russian-Ukranian war will end or what spillover effects will occur internationally,” he said.

An organized conference allowed academics to interact with industry and commerce and cross-pollinate ideas into the University's curriculum. Masvingo Mirror