On Now
Weekdays 09:00 - 12:00
Mid-Morning Magic Yolanda
NEXT: 12:00 - 15:00 At Lunch with Pulane
Listen Live Streams

Africa News

Zim ATMs to dispense bond notes and US dollars - reports

───   12:36 Fri, 25 Nov 2016

Zim ATMs to dispense bond notes and US dollars - reports | News Article

Harare – Zimbabwean banks are set to have separate ATMs for bond notes and US dollars, reports have said, ahead of the introduction of the dreaded surrogate currency next week.


According to the state-owned Herald newspaper, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), Governor John Mangudya, said that local banks were busy configuring the automated teller machines to disperse both the US dollar and the bond notes.

He, however, said that the banks may alternatively have to put in place separate ATM machines, dispensing the US dollar and the bond notes.

"When I met ambassadors they said the best way - as done elsewhere - is to have two ATMs, one for bond notes and another one for US dollars.

"It is a very good idea. People are rational, if there is no queue on one ATM, then they can go to the other and get their money," Mangudya was quoted as saying.

Depressed industrial production

The bond notes were expected to be in circulation next week on November 30.

The surrogate currency would be released in denominations of $2 and $5, and would be pegged at 1:1 with the US.

Zimbabwe has been in the grips of cash shortages since early this year, with President Robert Mugabe's government blaming the development on locals "hoarding and sending" cash out of the country.

But critics said it was because of depressed industrial production and the government's increased borrowings on the domestic market.

The Southern African country abandoned its own currency in 2009 because of hyperinflation.

Zimbabweans are against the introduction of the bond notes. They know the risks of worthless money all too well after hyperinflation between 2007 and 2009 gave them the 100-trillion-dollar banknote that barely bought a loaf of bread.

They fear that the government is about to create another devastating crisis by printing its own "bond notes" that will officially be worth the same as the US dollar.

- News24.com


@ 2024 OFM - All rights reserved Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | We Use Cookies - OFM is a division of Central Media Group (PTY) LTD.