Dr Kupukile Mlambo, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, was invited to deliver a distinguished guest lecture on the topic – “Central banking in a dollarised environment: Insights from Zimbabwe”, 9 October 2018, SOAS University of London. The event was hosted by the SOAS Centre for Global Finance (CGF). It attracted a wide range of audiences, including representatives of foreign embassies, policy makers, practitioners and academic members.

This lecture discussed the historical as well as the current development of dollarisation in Zimbabwe. It shed light on its benefits, the costs associated with the process, the main challenges, the policy responses and the way forward.

Dr. Mlambo argued that dollarisation in Zimbabwe took the form of multi-currency regime, where several foreign currencies have a legal tender status in the country. This change of currency has been beneficial for the country in the short-run, but has brought challenges for monetary policy.