HARARE – The government has introduced a National Standard Price List (NSPL) to regulate what ministries, departments and agencies pay for commonly procured goods and services, a measure framed as a cost-saving and transparency drive.
Buried in the announcement by finance minister Mthuli Ncube is a payment clause that some analysts are reading as a quiet step toward entrenching the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) as the country’s sole transactional currency.
Ncube and the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) announced that the NSPL would take effect immediately, binding all government entities including state-owned enterprises and local authorities to standardised pricing benchmarks.
The measure is designed to eliminate price inconsistencies across the public sector and tighten oversight of public expenditure, Ncube said.
“The implementation of the NSPL is expected to enhance cost savings, transparency, and efficiency in public procurement, thereby supporting national development priorities,” the minister said in a statement on Friday.
Crucially, the statement confirmed that payments to local suppliers under the framework will be made “solely in the local currency,” aligning with the 2026 national budget statement’s priority of promoting domestically produced goods and services.
For some economists and currency-watchers, the more significant element is not the price list itself but the payment condition attached to it.
The statement explicitly requires that all settlements with local suppliers be made “solely in the local currency” – a provision that, if enforced across the full breadth of government procurement, would compel a large segment of the private sector to transact in ZiG.
“The price standardisation on its own is unremarkable – governments do that,” one Harare-based economist noted. “What stands out is insisting that every supplier payment will be in ZiG. That’s not a procurement reform. That’s currency policy dressed up as procurement reform.”
While ordinary Zimbabweans and businesses are being steered toward ZiG for public sector trade, the government continues to charge for passports and other civil documentation in United States dollars. Fuel pricing, likewise, remains anchored in foreign currency, meaning the average Zimbabwean’s daily costs are still heavily dollarised in practice.
“You cannot tell suppliers to accept ZiG while you yourself demand dollars for passports,” the economist continued. “That kind of selective application destroys the credibility of any monocurrency narrative. People aren’t blind to the inconsistency.”
Public sentiment on social media and in business circles has echoed that frustration. For many, the announcement revives memories of previous currency reform drives – the bond note, the RTGS dollar and the Zimbabwe dollar – each launched with official fanfare and eventually overwhelmed by the same structural pressures: parallel market demand for hard currency, low confidence in state-issued money, and a government that keeps a dollar window open for its own fees while prescribing the local currency for others.
For businesses that supply government entities, the NSPL introduces new compliance complexity. Suppliers will now need to align their pricing with the published benchmarks, available through the Treasury website at www.zimtreasury.co.zw or PRAZ’s downloads portal, or risk being passed over in procurement processes.
Importers and suppliers of goods with significant foreign currency input costs face a particular squeeze: selling to the government in ZiG at regulated prices while sourcing inputs in a market where hard currency remains dominant.
The NSPL is the latest in a string of public financial management initiatives the Ncube-led Treasury has pursued since the ZiG’s introduction in April 2024. The minister has repeatedly stressed that ZiG is backed by gold and foreign currency reserves, and that its stability is a non-negotiable policy goal.
The post Finance ministry directs government agencies to pay suppliers ‘solely in ZiG’ appeared first on Zimbabwe News Now.