Response
Homelink proves popular

The response to the new Money Transfer Agency system has been immediate and overwhelming, taking many MTAs by surprise.

While they expected to be able to do good business, it would seem many had not expected the response to be so immediate and the demand so great, resulting in many of them being unprepared and having underestimated their daily cash float requirements.

The MTAs and the Reserve Bank have taken steps to rectify this and ensure adequate local and foreign cash is available to meet demand.

So far the Reserve Bank has received US$4,6 million from both bank and non-bank MTAs.

The potential for foreign currency inflows through MTAs is much greater than this but the market has been surprised by the speed with which Zimbabweans at home and abroad have already started using the system and the amount that has already been transferred through registered MTAs.

Long queues have been reported at MTAs in Harare and Bulawayo, as MTA staff struggle to cope with the demand. As the necessary steps are taken to deal with this demand and as more MTAs are registered, queues, should become shorter and more manageable, even though the number of people using them and the amount of money being sent is expected to increase.

Four of the 15 registered MTAs were only registered in the last week. It is likely to take people a while to come to know about them.

From Exchange Control Returns submitted by Money Transfer Agencies, indications are that more than 70 percent of those receiving money through MTAs are choosing to be paid in local currency, an indication that they are satisfied with the exchange rate.

An article in the April issue of Zim-Abroad, a magazine for Zimbabweans living abroad published by Zimbabweans in the United Kingdom, says the Reserve Bank’s initiatives should be applauded and calls for the eradication of the black market.

The article, headlined ‘Are you safe from forex crooks?’ says the widespread emergence of ‘unscrupulous individuals masquerading as money transfer agents’ has made sending money home more complicated than it should be. The black market has, it says, seen a proliferation of these fraudulent agencies.

The author of the article, Isaya Taingwa, encourages Zimbabweans to use the new system for the benefit of Zimbabwe’s economy as well as for their own benefit.

“It’s my conviction,” he says, “that every Zimbabwean living abroad, irrespective of party affiliation, has a duty to support any scheme designed to improve our ailing economy.”

The response to the Reserve Bank’s announcement that any individual can change foreign currency at banks at the same rate as those sending money from the Diaspora, without any questions being asked as to where the funds came from, has also received a good response.

A number of banks have experience long queues of people wanting to change money. Some banks in Bulawayo were reportedly having difficulty meeting the demand with their normal floats of local currency.

The response to the new system would seem to confirm that the Homelink money transfer agency system and measures related to it taken by the Reserve Bank are meeting an important need among Zimbabweans at home and in the Diaspora.