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Zimbabweans have up to end of September to exchange their local currency, the Zimbabwean dollar to the US dollar or South African rand as part of the process of phasing out the local currency murderd by hyper-inflation and formalising a multi-currency system introduced in 2009.
Foreign currencies like the US dollar and South African rand have been used for most transactions since 2009.
Local dollars are not used except high-denomination notes sold as souvenirs.
From Monday, Zimbabweans can exchange bank accounts of up to 175 quadrillion (175,000,000,000,000,000) Zimbabwean dollars for five US dollars.
Higher balances will be exchanged at a rate of Z$35 quadrillion to US$1.
The move has been “pending and long outstanding,” central bank Governor John Mangudya said, quoted by Bloomberg.
“We cannot have two legal currency systems. We need therefore to safeguard the integrity of the multiple-currency system or dollarization in Zimbabwe.”