25 Facts About Gideon Gono

Gideon Gono was born on 29 November 1959 and is a former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, serving from 2003 to 2013, and is the former CEO of the CBZ Bank Limited.

Gideon Gono went to Daramombe High School in Chivhu, an Anglican Mission school.

Gideon Gono started his career as a tea boy at National Breweries in Que Que in 1977.

Gideon Gono put himself through correspondence courses from O-Level through A-Level and moved on to the Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company as a bookkeeper.

In 1995, Gideon Gono was appointed managing director of the Bank of Credit and Commerce of Zimbabwe.

Gideon Gono was appointed as governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Gideon Gono obtained a master's degree in Business Administration at the University of Zimbabwe and went on to lecture there and head the university council.

Gideon Gono was awarded an honorary degree at the same institution.

Gideon Gono then went on to earn another PhD in Strategic Management in 2007 from Atlantic International University.

Gideon Gono was first appointed as governor of the Reserve Bank in November 2003 because of his reputation as a turnaround specialist, particularly because of his work at the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe.

In November 2008, Gideon Gono was reappointed to a new five-year term as governor, beginning on 1 December 2008.

Gideon Gono stepped down on 30 November 2013 after a 10-year term at the helm of the Reserve Bank.

Gideon Gono denied media claims that he had opposed price cuts that the government instituted to arrest inflation.

Gideon Gono sent in the police to arrest businessmen for failing to reduce their prices.

Gideon Gono admitted that his efforts to rescue and improve the economy of Zimbabwe were being thwarted and risked failure.

Gideon Gono said there were several factors that were outside the central bank's control, which made it difficult to reign in inflation.

Gideon Gono has blamed the failure of the economy on sanctions imposed on the country, a charge critics dispute.

Critics allege that Gideon Gono has kept his job as the governor mainly through Mugabe's patronage saying Mugabe has not only shielded Gideon Gono from critics, but has commended him in his activities as governor despite the extreme deterioration of the Zimbabwean economy.

Gideon Gono had been Mugabe's banker for a long period before becoming governor of the RBZ.

In November 2008, Gideon Gono published a book titled Zimbabwe's Casino Economy: Extra-ordinary Measures for Extra-ordinary Challenges describing the post-colonial economy of Zimbabwe particularly during the first five years of his term as Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Gideon Gono is banned from traveling to the United States because of his then influential position in government-owned institutions in Zimbabwe, namely the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe where he was the CEO and subsequently, the Central Bank where he was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Gideon Gono was added to and subsequently removed from the EU's list of individuals subject to personal sanctions and the ban on travel to the EU was lifted in 2013 after he retired from Government service.

Gideon Gono however is still on the US sanctions list.

Gideon Gono had no assets frozen by the EU sanctions.

In 2009, Gideon Gono was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Mathematics "for giving people a simple way to deal with a wide range of numbers" by having his bank print notes with denominations ranging from one cent to one hundred trillion dollars.