Zimbabwe Mulls Legalising Cryptocurrency as Legal Tender, Consultations With Private Sector Underway

The government of Zimbabwe is reportedly considering the adoption of decentralised cryptocurrency Bitcoin as a legal payment option alongside the national currency, the Zimbabwean Dollar. Charles Wekwete, the head of the e-Government technology in the South African country has revealed that discussions on legalising Bitcoin payments are underway with the private sector players. He did not state when the final decision on the subject should be expected from the Zimbabwean government.

As per Wekwete, the government fears that cryptocurrency could be exploited by notorious people to facilitate mal-practices like money laundering and to fund other illegal activities with little or no chance of being traced.

“Governments are still trying to understand and properly trying to create policies on how to deal with it (cryptocurrency). In our case, initially we were trying to understand their implication because they are a fundamental departure from previously known financial instruments and there are a lot of fears about cross border movement of funds, money laundering, externalisation of funds and illicit flow of funds to fund illicit issues,” a report by Zimbabwean news portal Bulawayo24 quoted the top official as saying.

Suggestions have been invited by individuals and companies under the private sector to participate in finalising Bitcoin adoption in Zimbabwe.

Wekwete has noted that after the government adopted the digital economy framework earlier, “cryptocurrency cannot be ignored”.

Earlier this year, El Salvador became the first country in the world to legalise Bitcoin as a legal tender.

The idea that Zimbabwe could follow El Salvador on the route to crypto adoption has opened a gate of opinions on Twitter.

In October, a parliamentarian in Tonga, the last Polynesian kingdom of the South Pacific pushed for Bitcoin adoption citing that remittance-dependent countries could save boat-loads of money that is currently cut as a service fee by banks from the money their abroad working citizens send back home.

In recent times, the crypto culture has witnessed a massive expansion around the world. While the governments of several nations like the US, India, and Pakistan among others are working on regulating the crypto space, many international companies are acknowledging the culture.

Presently, the over-all valuation of the crypto market is brimming at the $3.007 trillion (roughly Rs. 2,22,79,296 crore)-mark, as per market research tracker, CoinGecko.