Zimbabwe adopted a multi-currency system in 2008 shortly after its own currency collapsed. Since then, most transactions have been in either U.S dollar or, South African rand.
As a result, the country has been unable to print any of the aforementioned currencies. The cash crisis has troubled Zimbabwe for several years, accessing cash from a local bank has been an overwhelming experience for the many.
At present, it is common to find bank entrances packed with people waiting to withdraw some cash. However, banks are financially constrained which means people often stand in queues for hours only to be told cash is unavailable. In May 2018, the RBZ governor, John Mangudya responded to the crisis by stating that,
“What I want to promise the nation is that within the next two months, the queues are going to be minimised. Starting from the end of this month, we should see increased supply of cash on the market as we get more money from tobacco, gold exports as well as increased supply from our lines of credit.”
“I can say that we have imported cash of an amount of about US$400 million from January to the end of April. This is higher than what we did last year at around the same time.”
Solving the cash crisis will require more time, perchance injecting more foreign currency into the local economy could be a step closer to solving the issue. Also, the government must address the rise of street currency dealers who have intensified the crisis by smuggling foreign currency out of the country.
The ministry of finance has worked tirelessly to fix the problem, once the country resolves the crisis, it will be able to attract more investments to drive growth.
