Daily limit of $5 000 on mobile money transactions to affect only 200

The daily limit of $5 000 on all mobile money transactions, now being enforced by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, will only affect 200 bulk papers who were abusing the facility to buy foreign currency on the black market.

Economist Eddie Cross, who also sits on the Monetary Policy Committee, said the average mobile money transaction over the past 12 months was $117, while that for Ecocash which dominates the market was $116.

He said this meant that the daily limit of $5 000 would cover the majority of transactions.

“Once the situation settles down, this limit can be reviewed, but the authorities had to limit the capacity of the system to transact in buying foreign exchange,” Cross told the Herald.

“This they were doing through their agents funded by cash transferred to them by their bulk payers system. This affected only 200 or so clients and was being abused. While the measures taken will affect their agents, their clients should not be disadvantaged to any extent.”

Exchange rates on the black market had shot to $125:1 and to $141:1 for the Old Mutual Implied Rate.

The black market rate is now down to about $90 but the OMIR which had gone down to $107 by 25 August was up at $116 yesterday.

The Zimbabwe dollar is currently trading at $83.40 at the official exchange rate.

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