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Herald Reporter
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe does not deal in parallel markets, and none of its employees have been deployed to buy foreign currency on the streets, RBZ Governor Dr John Mangudya has said.

He said allegations that the RBZ was engaged in forex parallel market activities were not only mischievous, but defamatory and aimed at causing panic and instability on the market.

Anyone with information of people claiming to be representing the central bank has been asked to report to law enforcement agencies and/ or the Financial Intelligence Unit.

A monetary reward is being offered, in line with the RBZ’s whistleblowing policy, for positive identification of the unscrupulous people.

In a statement today, Dr Mangudya said: “It has come to the attention of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe that there are certain people posing and masquerading as Bank officials in their foreign exchange dealings on the parallel market.

“The bank does not deal on parallel markets and does not and will not deploy any of its officers or employees on the foreign exchange parallel market as suggested by those defamers and impostors.”

There have been unsubstantiated claims on social media that some RBZ officials were buying forex on the parallel market, usually offering higher rates than others.

Last week, another imposter claimed to be buying forex on the parallel market on behalf of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB).

However, Dr Mangudya told The Herald that there was no reason for GMB to source forex on the parallel since it can get Letters of Credit (LCs) for any foreign payments.

GMB general manager, Mr Rockie Mutenha, told The Herald by phone today that they “don’t require foreign currency per se”, since most of their payments were done in Zimbabwe dollars.

But when they require spares, for instance for silos, the RBZ comes in mainly to assist companies that would have bid to supply the spares.

“We are working well with the RBZ and we have no reason to get forex from the black market,” said Mr Mutenha.