The corporations of Russia are now finding an alternative to the US dollars, popularly known as the Greenback for settlements during trade with the countries comprising the African continent as was stated by Dmitry Mazepin who is the chairman of the Russia-Zimbabwe Business Council.
Damitry Mazepin stated that he feels that the usage of other currencies is possible in Africa. Mazepin is a businessman and is the core shareholder and chairman of Uralchem Integrated Chemicals Company. He further added that since VTB is planning for an extension of its activities in the African region therefore it would be more prudent and beneficial to switch to settlements in the currencies that would preferably be more convenient to the lender.
The Russian announced of their plans of taking all the necessary steps for de-dollarization of the economy of the country, earlier this month. The main aim behind this big plan is to make the usage of rubles instead of dollars by the Russian exporters more profitable and feasible.
The officials have been stating since a long time that the Russian companies have been encountering difficulties doing business in Africa and logistics is the biggest problem they have been facing since a long time.
Mazepin explained the problem stating that all of the African countries do not have access to ocean or sea and neither are they connected via rail roads and therefore the firms of Russia have to take major steps and arrange difficult logistics to deliver the supplies.
According to the businessmen, financial guarantees are considered to be another major issue. Mazepin said that the settlement of a way of payment is very important because most of the countries are financially weal and thus very unstable, adding that this problem could be solved either by sending the supplies on deferred payment method or by banking mechanisms.
Source: TheZimbabweMail, RT.
