Survey says 81% of Zimbabweans are living in debt

A survey conducted by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Zimvac) shows that 81 percent of Zimbabweans are living debt. According to the Rural Livelihoods Assessment survey, some people are even selling property to buy food due to economic challenges.

The report reads,

There is no significant difference in the proportions of households having loans/debts in 2016, 81 percent compared to 2015, 79 percent. A higher proportion of male headed households (21 percent) had loans debts while 16, 1 percent female headed households had loans/debts at the time of conducting the survey. The highest proportion of households across all provinces were borrowing to buy food. Matabeleland South (54 percent) and Matabeleland North (52 percent) and Masvingo (50 percent) had the highest proportions of households borrowing to purchase food. The second most common reason for borrowing was to pay for education costs (Manicaland, Matabeleland North and South, Midlands and Masvingo).

The data comes at a time when the Government has said it is in the process of updating food mitigation registers in all the provinces as four million people now require food assistance in the country.

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