“I make up to Z$70 million nowadays. While this is painful to most people, I wish it could continue for a while as it has become a big source of income for me,” said one bank teller with a leading commercial bank in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is reeling under a crippling cash crisis partly caused by growing lack of confidence on the formal banking system by most individuals and business owners and a cutthroat measure on the part of the central bank to force the transacting public to revert back to the formal system of securing their cash.
But recent cash withdrawal policies that have seen individuals and corporates being limited to ridiculous amounts of up to $40 million coupled with the world’s fastest shrinking economy has seen the public holding back their cash, preferring the informal system that offers favourable trading returns.
The current cash crisis is reminiscent of the 2003 crisis that saw government resorting to high value bearer cheques to replace hard currency. The country has now been operating for four years without proper money. – Takesure Bizure
Post published in: News