Zimbabwe Has ‘Roadmap’ to CBDC, Says Central Bank Governor

Zimbabwe central bank governor John Mangudya has said there’s a “roadmap” to adopt a CBDC, a consultation paper from the bank said.

This comes six months after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) said it would look into the feasibility of rolling out a CBDC.

Mangudya said the bank was now looking at getting stakeholder views on the idea.

“The role of stakeholders in the CBDC journey is paramount, and in that regard, the Bank has developed a public consultation paper on CBDC to be released soon. The consultation paper is aimed at fostering a broad and transparent public dialogue regarding the potential benefits and risks of CBDC.”

He added that the public would also have an opportunity to comment on the paper later on.

He said there were two FinTech startups admitted into the regulatory sandbox — Llyod Crowd Funding and Uhuru Innovative Solutions. Llyod Crowd Funding has reportedly started testing already, while Uhuru Innovative Solutions will do so soon.

Mangudya said appointing those two startups showed how the bank wanted to promote “responsible innovation,” and regulatory testing would show how the bank could move forward with a framework for the tech.

Many countries globally have been exploring the idea of making a CBDC, including Nepal, PYMNTS wrote.

Read more: Nepal Cautiously Explores CBDC

Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of the country, is looking at revising legislation governing what it can do, which would allow it to possibly evaluate a CBDC. Currently, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Act 2002 only allows paper notes and coins and not a digital currency.

Senior executive Revati Nepal said there’s been a task force created to draft new legislation and let the bank issue a CBDC.

There were already plans in the works before the formation of the task force, with Revati already leading a team that had found the idea of a CBDC “viable,” though there would have to be some other considerations before putting one out.

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