Zimbabwe rural teachers to be allowed to withdraw $1 000 at one go

Zimbabwe’s rural teachers are to be allowed to withdraw up to $1 000 at one go, their trade union said after meeting central bank governor John Mangudya yesterday.

The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe did not give a date when this will be effective from, but said the Ministry of Education and banks will carry out a review of how many rural teachers there are in the country so as to distinguish them from those working in urban areas.

Current withdrawal limits are set at $300 a week but some banks are giving clients as little as $50 because of the shortage of cash.

“The bank will set a figure of $1000 rtgs that can be withdrawn at once by a rural teacher. The figure would be revised based on availability of paper money,” ARTUZ said after meeting Mangudya.

It also said Mangudya is to investigate banks that can issue cash withdrawal service at centres in rural areas to minimise cost of teachers travelling to far away towns to withdraw little salaries.

“This system is used by some banks that take cash to uniformed forces barracks during pay days for withdrawal,” it said.

Zimbabwe is working on easing the cash shortage and will be introducing bigger denomination notes of $10, $20 and $50.

The highest denomination note is currently $5.

The country had $1.1 billion in circulation at the end of the year but bank deposits stood at $34.5 billion.

The country’s monetary policy committee said the country needs at least 10 percent of the deposits to be circulating which translates to $3.4 billion.

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