Currencies

Gold-Backed Digital Currency Is Zimbabwe’s Way to Sway Love for Dollars

  • Central bank started issuing gold-backed digital money Oct. 5
  • Uptake of the ZiG has been slow, bankers association says

A street vendor exchanges US banknotes with a customer at the bus terminus in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Photographer: Cynthia R Matonhodze/Bloomberg
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Zimbabweans are still not yet sold on the government’s latest attempts to get them to ditch their favorite currency: the US dollar.

Banks are seeing a slow uptake of gold-backed digital money almost a week after the central bank issued the so-called “ZiG” for use in domestic transactions and as an alternative store of value.