Staff Reporter

Government’s withdrawal of the US$50 facility that had been afforded to members of the general public to access foreign currency at the official exchange rate has been hailed, as it had become prone to abuse. The facility will now only be limited to pensioners, senior citizens, people living with disability and for medical purposes.

Economic analyst Dr Prosper Chitambara, commended the recent Monetary Policy Statement for withdrawing the US$50 facility.

“The facility was being abused, by the public and some bank tellers to fuel the parallel market. 

“People who really needed to access the money for medicines and other amenities could not access it due to overwhelming queues that were flooded by the illegal foreign currency traders and their accomplices,” said Dr Chitambara.

In his Monetary Policy Statement, the Reserve Bank Governor John Mangudya said, “The facility was now being abused by some members of the public, and the call by the Central Bank has resolved to limit the facility to certain categories of people.”

Dr Chitambara echoed that the move was necessary in order to restore confidence in the banking sector by calling for order.

“It had been the norm back in the day that if one wanted to access foreign currency they would apply for it through their bank, with supporting documents that justify the request.  Travelling outside the country would see one being issued with some traveller’s cheques as foreign currency. Foreign currency was never given over the counter”, Dr Chitambara said.

Meanwhile, the RBZ’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in an effort to curb the abuse of the foreign currency facility is on record having sent out a directive to the banks to report those who were using local currency card swipe transactions to facilitate illegal USD exchanges, a directive which saw a number of people being caught on the wrong side of the law.