The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Acting News Editor
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has promised to put in place a raft of measures aimed at dealing with the the current cash shortages in the country in the backdrop of the recent release of bond notes which have been well received ahead of the festive season.
The situation has seen long winding queues being a permanent feature at most banking halls in cities and towns with people queuing as early as 4AM only to make a maximum withdrawal of $50 or less.
In an interview with Sunday News, the Central Bank Governor, Dr John Mangudya said he was well aware of the problems the banking public was going through trying to access cash from the banks and was going to put measures to deal with the queues.
He said the Central Bank was going to release another batch of $2 bond notes amounting to $7 million while at the same time promoting and encouraging businesses and individuals to embrace the use of plastic money.
“We are aware of the problems that the banking public are having in accessing cash. We are working to ensure that we minimise queues at banks, working closely with the banks,” said Dr Mangudya.
The Central Bank introduced the bond in denominations of $2 and $5 but only the $2 note and the $1 bond coin have so far been released into the market. The bond notes which are 1:1 with the United States dollar are an export incentive although the majority of people expected their introduction to ease the liquidity challenges that the economy is grappling with.
The notes were well received by the country’s population contrary to what economic saboteurs have been anticipating.
Dr Mangudya said they were not happy when the banking public spend a lot of productive time queuing for money at the banks and said he was going to work with the banks to ensure the queues were significantly minimised.
“We would also like to continue to urge the banking public to make maximum use of plastic money,” he said.
The cash shortage has further been exacerbated by the reluctance of most businesses that are no longer giving cash when people do their shopping. This has left the banking public at the mercy of the banks that now give out whatever amount they want.
The banking public also complained over the reluctance by some businesses to embrace the use of plastic money saying they needed hard cash to pay for things as rentals, transport fares, domestic workers and many other things that were not necessarily possible to purchase or pay for using plastic money.
“We are going for the festive holiday in the rural areas, we need transport fares and money to spend. I haven’t seen a shop in the rural areas with a swipe machine. We therefore need the cash situation to be improved,” said Mrs Thabile Nkomo.
The Central Bank chief blamed some banks saying although there was a general cash shortage in the country, some banks were creating an artificial crisis that was disadvantaging depositors.
The Government has also said such banks were being interrogated.
Dr Mangudya, however, said they were working tirelessly with the banks to get the cash situation to normal and improve the depositors’ confidence in the banking sector.
He also said banks were supposed to reduce their charges in line with the amount of money they were giving to the transacting public taking into consideration the times one has to visit the bank.
Dr Mangudya said depositors needed protection from some unscrupulous banks that were taking advantage of the cash situation to rip off depositors.
