Zimbabwe Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube, spoke to Trevor Ncube on the program “In conversation with Trevor”.

Key Points

  1. Mthuli Ncube said he was surprised to be appointed by ED Mnangagwa. He said he was working in private equity and at Oxford.
  2. He was more concerned about relocation, first from SA to Tunisia, then to the UK and then to Switzerland.
  3. Ncube said the job demands someone that understands complexity.
  4. The surprise for him was the extend of the deficit when he first arrived.
  5. He was also surprised by the adversarial nature of politics in Zimbabwe’s parliament.
  6. Ncube says he found a deficit at Treasury, it was 11% of GDP. After the 2% tax, Treasury is now in a surplus position, the government of Zimbabwe can now pay civil servants salaries in time. He is monitoring travel and cutting out waste in other areas.
  7. Ncube says the surplus is being used for social protection and importation of grain, wheat and fixing roads.
  8. Ncube says he knows all the projects being finance across the country by district.
  9. He says he introduced the Zimbabwe dollar because fiscal policy was a risk to monetary policy. There was a need to have a monetary policy.
  10. Ncube said currency stabilization is the goal.
  11. He said there will be a formal interbank market.
  12. People with foreign currency in their Nostro Accounts will not lose it.
  13. Ncube says he knows the people behind the black market by law. They are not being arrested because what they are doing is not illegal.
  14. He will be privatizing 6 parastatals in 6 weeks, namely, GMB, IDC, Willowvale, Allied Timbers, ZMDC, POSB, NetOne and TelOne.
  15. The cause of power issues in Zimbabwe is the whether, resulting in low water levels at Kariba.
  16. The focus in future should be on renewable energy (Solar Energy).
  17. There is a forensic report from PWC about the happenings at ZESA.
  18. The tariffs are very low. There is need to increase the tariffs, there is no choice.
  19. Treasury has also paid all of ZESA’s local debts ( Government entities up to ZWL 20 Million and USD10 Million to ESKOM).
  20. Ncube says he would like to communicate more going forward.

Please watch the video above this post for more details.

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