Perceptions on the impact of multiple currencies/dollarization on economic development and sustainable livelihoods of the urban populace in Zimbabwe: a case of Bulawayo Metropolitan in Matabeleland Region

Abstract

This paper explores how participants view and describe impacts of dollarization/the US Dollar and the south African Rand as a panacea for economic development in Zimbabwe particularly now; at a time when the country is facing the toughest liquidity crisis and is contemplating reverting to the locally printed bond notes. Adoption of multiple currencies/dollarization basically the US Dollar and the south African Rand was premised on stabilizing the  Zimbabwean economy that was deteriorating at an alarming tempo during the period following numerous erratic reforms such as fast track land reform and the indigenisation policy. This was however never the case as the economy continued to face serious liquidity challenges which finally paralysed the entire productive sector leaving many of the citizens jobless hence subjected to untold pain and suffering.  To effectively capture perceptions from all stakeholders, stratified and purposive sampling techniques were used to draw 100 participants from an assumed population of 800 experts comprising captains of industry and commerce, economists, bankers, small to medium enterprises (SMEs), vendors and cross border traders.  In-depth interviews were used to gather qualitative responses from the sampled participants and to curb bias gathering of formal statistics through a formal questionnaire was also done. The research therefore used qualitative descriptive research design for collecting and analyzing data. Qualitative data provided a detailed explanation of the findings and was used in displaying the findings. The findings indicated that though people overwhelmingly support the adoption of dollarization they however accused retailers for price distortions and the government for lack of vision in prioritizing the productive sector as the only entity that had the capacity to resuscitate and bring sanity to the country’s economy.