RBZ addresses issues that caused tobacco farmers to demonstrate last week

Speaking to The Herald, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr John Mangudya, yesterday said central bank had moved in to address issues which saw some tobacco farmers withdrawing $300 instead of $1 000 per initial sale as announced.

Said Mangudya:

There are a number of variables to that problem. Firstly, the time that banks closed was different from that of auction floors. Banks closed earlier than auction floors and some farmers would fail to access cash. We have synchronised both opening and closing times. Another aspect was that the number of people who would require cash on a given day, would be more than what a given bank would have anticipated. This would result in banks carrying less cash to the auction floors because the out-turn cannot be determined with certainty by banks.

He said banks would get figures of anticipated number of farmers on a given day from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, which would be using historical figures on previous years.

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