Hopewell Chin’ono: Financial illiteracy is our biggest enemy in Zimbabwe
By Hopewell Chin’ono
I found this attached very interesting letter in one of my old books that I last read in 2004. It is a letter that I received from Barclays Bank offering me a Z$1Million overdraft facility.
Three years back in 2001, I had bought a property in Colne Valley for Z$4,5 Million which was then equivalent to US$60,000.
Two years ago in 2016, the real estate agent who sold the house to me in 2001, June Mossdorf of Mossdorf Realty, valued the same property at US$550,000.
Yes you read right, from US$60k in 2001 to US$550k in 2016, that is a value jump of US$490,000.
I am not sure how much it is worth now so I am tempted to ask her to do yet another valuation of the property.
Just before 2013, June came to see me with a Lebanese businessman who offered to rent the property for US$4500 per month, which was an annual income of US$48000.