RBZ to curb remittances fraud Finance and Economic development Minister Patrick Chinamasa receives a copy of the country’s biggest newspaper The Herald as Zimpapers group marketing officer Tapiwa Mandimutsira looks on during The Herald Business RBZ bond notes awareness campaign
Finance and Economic development Minister Patrick Chinamasa receives a copy of the country’s biggest newspaper The Herald as Zimpapers group marketing officer Tapiwa Mandimutsira looks on during The Herald Business RBZ bond notes awareness campaign

Finance and Economic development Minister Patrick Chinamasa receives a copy of the country’s biggest newspaper The Herald as Zimpapers group marketing officer Tapiwa Mandimutsira looks on during The Herald Business RBZ bond notes awareness campaign

Tinashe Makichi recently in Kariba—

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said it is working on mechanisms to curb fraudulent activities being orchestrated by residents using international debit cards to cheat on the diaspora remittances.The RBZ introduced the remittances incentive to encourage Zimbabweans in the diaspora to send money through official channels.

The incentive was set at five percent with two percent being reserved for the money transfer agent and three percent reserved for the recipient. RBZ pays the incentive on the basis of money received and this is within 48 hours of the money having been sent.

Though the margin is small and the practice not widespread, some Zimbabwean residents have been operating syndicates where they use international debit cards such as Mastercard and Visa to withdraw money in regional countries and send it back to themselves through agents such as Mukuru and Western Union, using relatives and friends to earn the remittances bonus.

Speaking at The Herald Business organised bond notes awareness campaign in Kariba on Monday, RBZ deputy director for Financial Markets William Manhimanzi told delegates that the Central Bank was aware of the fraudulent activities by certain syndicates and was working on mechanisms to address the issue.

“We are aware that such fraudulent activities have been happening and we are quite informed that those people involved have not been doing it in far away countries like United States America but they were using countries like Botswana and South Africa, our neighbours.

“We are monitoring the situation and we are currently working on finding the right mechanisms to curb these fraudulent activities, because that is corruption and something must be done,” said Mr Manhimanzi.

In bid to boost local production, the RBZ also introduced a five percent incentive on exporters funded by a $200 million backed bond notes facility. The Central Bank has since started an awareness campaign for the bond notes in different provinces.

Padenga Holdings finance director Oliver Kamundimu told delegates at the same awareness campaign that the introduction of bond notes was a welcome development to exporters which will play a major role in boosting the competitiveness of local companies on the export market.

“We are crocodile producers and our biggest market is the overseas market. Generally we compete against South Africa among other countries and considering that our local production costs are higher this export incentive somehow will be factored in our costs thereby making us competitive on the export market again.

“So as the Kariba community, we welcome this intervention by the RBZ and that definitely means we are going to export more going forward,” said Mr Kamundimu.

Kapenta producer’s association representative Nesbert Mapfumo added that the introduction of bond notes came at the right time when the Kapenta industry is currently facing challenges from cheap imports.

“Now that we have bond notes, we are eagerly waiting to see if cross-border traders are going to import at the rate they used to import in the past.

“We feel this is a shot in the arm for Kapenta producers who have been fighting imported Kapenta from countries as far as Tanzania. As Kapenta producers we welcome this development and we hope it will go a long way in addressing some of the challenges this economy is currently facing,” said Mr Mapfumo.

Kariba Ward 2 Councillor Mr Enock Muziringa also endorsed the introduction of bond notes and urged the Kariba community to support Government initiatives.

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