ZANU PF legislator and Zimbabwe Cross-Border Traders’
Association (ZCBTA) chairperson, Killer Zivhu has slammed the move by the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to introduce bureau de changes, saying this will
encourage parallel market activities and take the country back to the 2008 era.
RBZ governor John Mangudya last week announced a new
monetary policy that allows banks to trade United States dollars with real time
gross settlement dollars, through an intermediate bank.
Zivhu said the system would fail considering that there
were high levels of corruption in the country because some bureau de changes
would most likely buy the money and trade it on the black market for quick
returns.
“Some bureau de changes will buy the money for themselves
or use their relatives to take money to the black market where it will fetch
more. Bureau de changes are just forex dealers so where there is money, they
are always there,” he said.
According to the monetary policy, bureau de changes would
change a maximum of US$10 000 per day.
Zivhu said the daily limit was not sufficient for
cross-border traders, considering the high unemployment rate in the country,
which has forced many into the informal market for survival.
“More than two million Zimbabweans are not formally
employed, hence they survive on buying and selling. Civil servants and the
working class also depend on buying and selling of goods; they also sustain
their salaries through cross-border business, which increases the number of
people trading.
“We have bureau de changes changing US$10 000 per day, as a
result these people will not be able to get money at the bank rate because they
do not qualify to measures put in place for the banks. Their only option will
be getting forex on the streets, thereby increasing the demand on black
market,” he said.
The Chivi South MP said the re-introduction of bureau de
changes does not help Zimbabwe’s economic malaise, but fuels the cash crisis
and the parallel market as there is no adequate foreign currency.
“As ZCBTA, the monetary policy is not favourable to our
members. We are seeing a repeat of 2007 and 2008, if the RBZ governor does not
listen to our advice. We had similar problems in 2003 as well when there were
cash shortages and also in 2007 and 2008 when they refused to listen to our
advice,” he said.
The ZCBTA chairperson said there should be packages for
cross-border traders, whereby they would buy forex in banks using mastercards
and prepaid visa cards to avoid the handling of cash to reduce parallel market
activities. Newsday
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