Towards A Common Understanding?
By Reuben Machinga
News of the Zimbabwean High Court lifting the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe(RBZ)’s ban on cryptocurrency trading must have brought many smiles in the local fintech world. For reasons not completely clear, the RBZ chose not to defend itself in the court case. There is no reason for the smiles to be mistaken for smirks, however.
Financial technology is here to make life better for everyone. It is creating new opportunities and new markets for people who otherwise would have been excluded by the traditional financial system. This, I would hope, is something that the authorities would welcome. Zimbabwe, along with many other countries like us, are likely to benefit immensely from these innovations.
Imagine a young woman, recently employed, who has built up a respectable stock of savings. She wants to earn a healthy return on her capital. In shopping around for places to invest, she quickly finds out that the amount of money she has does not warrant serious attention from the large, traditional financial institutions. Fund managers, money market accounts, and other traditional players and instruments demand much more money than she has.
For her, the cryptocurrency markets are a genuine alternative, perhaps the most ideal. Not only can she be accommodated, but she may well earn returns well…
