Dr Mangudya graded by the Central Banker Report Cards

Update: The previous title of this article was “Dr Mangudya ranked worst Reserve Bank Governor” this was incorrect. The Reserve Bank Governor got a C-“

Global Finance has been publishing the Central Banker Report Cards since 1994. As you many have already guessed this is a school style mark for the world’s central bank governors and the 2021’s report gave the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s (RBZ) Governor Dr John Mangudya a C- grade making him one of the lowest-ranked in the Middle East and Africa Table.

Zimbabwe’s central bank has been reveling over its prudent monetary policy stance that has resulted in year-on-year inflation dropping from 837.5% in July 2020 to 50.2% in August 2021. The bank’s monetary policy committee met in August and resolved to stay the course on the current stance, leading to a decision to hold the benchmark rate at 40%. Zimbabwe’s economy is on the road to recovery after years of turmoil, with last two being in recession. Growth is projected at 3.9% in 2021 by the World Bank and 6% by IMF.

The apex bank also wants commercial banks to help the recovery by encouraging their clients to invest in government securities. The bank has launched a regulatory sandbox framework to encourage innovations in the fintechs and further liberalized the operations of bureau de change to promote financial inclusion.

Central Banker Report Card 2021

Country	Banker	2021 Grade	2020 Grade
Algeria	Rosthom Fadli	C	Too early to say
Angola	José de Lima Massamo	B-	C+
Bahrain	Rasheed AI Maraj	B-	B
Bank of Central African States	Abbas Mahamat Tolli	B-	B-
Botswana	Moses Pelaelo	B+	B+
Central Bank of West African States	Tiémoko Meyliet Kome	B+	B+
Egypt	Tarek Amer	A	A-
Ethiopia	Yinager Dessie	C-	C
Gambia	Buah Saidy	Too early to say	C+
Ghana	Ernest Addison	B	B-
Iraq	Mustafa Ghaleb	Too early to say	B
Israel	Amir Yaron	A-	A-
Jordan	Ziad Fariz	B-	B-
Kenya	Patrick Njoroge	B+	B+
Kuwait	Mohammad Y Al-Hashel	A	A
Madagascar	Henri Rabarijohn	D+	Too early to say
Mauritania	Cheikh El Kebir Moulay Taher	D	Too early to say
Mauritius	Harvesh Kumar Seegolam	B	Too early to say
Morocco	Abdellatif Jouahri	A	A
Mozambique	Rogério Lucas Zandamela	C	C
Namibia	Johannes !Gawaxab	D+	Too early to say
Nigeria	Godwin Emefiele	C	C
Oman	Tahir bin Salim bin Abdullah Al Amri	B-	B
Qatar	Abdulla Bin Saoud Al-Thani	A-	B+
Rwanda	John Rwangombwa	B+	B+
Saudi Arabia	Fahad al-Mubarak	Too early to say	A-
South Africa	Lesetja Kganyago	A-	B+
Tanzania	Florens Luoga	C+	B-
Tunisia	Marouane El Abassi	C-	c
Uganda	Emmanuel Tumusime-Mutebile	B-	C+
United Arab Emirates	Khaled Mohamed Balama AI Tameemi	Too early to say	Too early to say
Zambia	Christopher M. Mvunga	C	Too early to say
Zimbabwe	John Mangudya	C–	D

Dr John Mangudya was not the worst of them, that award went to Venezuela’s Calixto Ortega who got an F which isn’t surprising because the country has been in the doldrums for quite some time.

Fun fact, Venezuela also tried the Forex Auction the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has been doing for the last couple of years. Oh, the company we keep…

You should also check out

• Zimbos were creating money on EcoCash, OneMoney and telecash using blockchain tech – RBZ governor. And more revelations
• Fintech’s US$3 billion dominance in Africa should be a wake-up call for RBZ’s Sandbox
• RBZ blocked funds as of 31st December 2020
• RBZ shuts down Market Watch & other black market exchange rate sites
• The RBZ’s auction system takes up to 10 weeks to process payments