Zimbabwean prominent banker, Nigel Chanakira believes political reform is necessary so as to curtail the current economic problems dogging the country.

At a recent business meeting, the Kingdom Financial Holdings chief executive says though he is less fanatic about who is in charge, he would prefer to see a situation where leaders begin to lead in so far as the foreign exchange rate is concerned.

I believe we have a great country and we can make it work. I do not believe we can just be observers. There should be demands, especially from business.

Nigel Chanakira

Zimbabwe is in its eighth year of recession marked by erratic shortages of fuel, electricity, water, food and foreign currency. With an unemployment rate of more than 80 percent, the country currently holds the highest yearly inflation in the world of 7,892.1 percent.

The KFH chief says he recalls sometime when one well-known public figure present at a monetary policy presentation applauded when it was announced the exchange rate would remain at  $250 to the US dollar.

"This implied the person concerned was benefiting from the low rate. Buying money at the official rate and selling it at the black market rate is the easiest way to become wealthy," he said.

According to Chanakira, when a bank surveillance team looked at the bank accounts of government officials and ministers, it saw large amounts of money being traded by these officials.

Chanakira also indicates he pins hope on the change of British prime minister where there would be an opportunity to improve relations with the West. However, if the West would not assist, then balance of payments support should be sought from the East.

"The country certainly requires balance of payment support from multilateral organisations, whether this will come from the World Bank or from Chinese banks. This would allow a revaluation of the country’s currency."

"I would advocate for a new currency. It is no good removing zeros from the currency without a fiscal policy to go with this," added Chanakira.

At the moment, the government and monetary authorities have failed to tame inflation whilst the recent price-control initiative has led to the closure of many businesses, disappearance of basic commodities on supermarket shelves and generally, low supplies by manufacturers.

Chanakira concludes we need to crystallise our thinking on where we want to go and then work backwards to see what fundamental economic, monetary, fiscal and political policies we need to adopt to get there.

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