THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has received an overwhelming response and ZiG acceptance during its first week of nationwide education and awareness campaigns, which have engaged over 256 000 people across the country as of March 8, 2026.Zimbabwean cultural products
The ZiG awareness campaigns officially commenced with launches in all the provinces, led by Ministers of Provincial Affairs and Devolution.
RBZ Governor, Dr John Mushayavanhu, launched the awareness campaign on the upgraded ZiG banknote series in Harare at Parliament on March 2, Bulawayo Province on March 3 and Mutare on March 4.
The Governor also engaged the Masvingo Province on March 12, 2026.
In a response to questions from Zimpapers Business Hub, Dr Mushayavanhu said following the official launch of the awareness campaigns, dedicated field teams began rolling out awareness activities across all the districts in the country.
The campaigns are expected to continue until the end of March 2026.
Within one week, Dr Mushayavanhu said the RBZ team had covered 27 out of the country’s 60 districts.Corporate communication services
“The Reserve Bank has received an overwhelming response and ZiG acceptance during its first week of nationwide education and awareness campaign,” said Dr Mushayavanhu.
“Various stakeholders in both rural and urban areas, including business owners, farmers, women, and youths, commended the Reserve Bank for introducing a high-quality banknote series.
“Stakeholders commended that this was the right and appropriate time to introduce the upgraded Big5 ZiG notes, given that the economy has shown considerable macroeconomic stability,” the central bank chief said.
As of March 8, 2026, RBZ said the outreach campaign had successfully engaged over 256 000 people across the country, consisting of Government officials, traditional leaders, business owners, large and small corporates, transporters, women, youths, farmers, church and civic leaders, school pupils, artisanal miners and the general public.
The campaign emphasises broad-based engagement, ensuring that both urban and rural populations gain first-hand knowledge of the upgraded ZiG notes and their security features.
The public told the central bank that they not only felt economic stability, but could also experience it, characterised by price, currency, and exchange rate stability.
The public noted that inflation had stabilised and prices of basic goods and services in local currency have been the same for over a year, something most people have not experienced in their lifetime.
RBZ said the public emphasised that prices of critical items, including bread, maize meal, cooking oil, rice, soap and detergents, among others, which form the basic consumer basket, have been stable for a considerable period.
“Similarly, the public noted that the exchange rate of the ZiG to the US dollar has been stable and people no longer lose sleep over holding the local currency in bank accounts or as cash overnight or for some considerable period,” said the Governor.
“They highlighted that the street money changers have almost disappeared and highlighted the need to ensure that the upgraded ZiG banknotes continue to be well managed to completely eradicate this cancerous activity.”
The RBZ reassured the public that the introduction of new banknotes, including the higher denominations of ZiG50, ZiG100 and ZiG200, will not lead to inflation and the emergence of a destabilising parallel market.
The 10, 20 and 50 ZiG denominations will be introduced first, while the 100 and 200 denominations will enter circulation as and when necessary.
Dr Mushayavanhu said the issuance of the upgraded family of ZiG notes will be swapped with existing electronic balances held by banks at the central bank.
As such, he said the injection of cash into the market will not increase the money supply in the economy but will change only its composition towards more cash.
“The cash injection will be demand-driven, linked to the needs of economic agents and increases in economic activity and therefore, no emergence of a parallel market will occur,” he added.
“Importantly, the Reserve Bank advised the public that the country was pursuing a foreign currency reserve accumulation strategy, which has seen international reserves increasing to US$1,2 billion in December 2025, up from around US$2,76 million in April 2024.
“This has allowed the Reserve Bank to meet all bona fide foreign payment invoices, including for education, health, chemicals and tractors acquired outside the country. As such, there was no need for companies and individuals to go to the parallel market to purchase foreign currency at exorbitant rates.”-herald
