Zimbabweans in diaspora to pay US$318 for passport

Zimbabweans in the diaspora will not pay US$318 for passport and Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe said these applications will be prioritised.

He said Zimbabwe had a backlog of 359 288 and would work on modalities to ease the backlog.

The backlog is due to the shortage of foreign currency.

Zimbabwe, which was using a multiple currency since 2009 disbanded this in June, making the Zimbabwe dollar the sole currency for local transactions.

The market, however, still prefers the United States dollar with those buying in local currency being asked to pat at the exchange rate of 25 to 26 to one against the interbank rate of 16.5 to one.

Some shops are also offering customers a 35 percent discount when they pay in cash.

Zimbabwe has been facing a serious cash shortage which has resulted in cash barons charging premiums to those who want to cash in electronic money.

The central bank promised to pour in $1 billion to ease the cash shortage but has so far availed only $110 million.

It said it will “drip feed” the market to avoid flooding it and thus raising inflation which is reported to be between 400 and 440 percent.

Zimbabwe stopped releasing annual inflation figures until February next year arguing that they no longer made sense since the change of currency.

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