Paul Nyathi

Former MDC Alliance top official now member of the RBZ Monetary Policy Committee Eddie Cross says that the daily individual limit of $5 000 for mobile money transactions recently imposed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), will not affect business operations but only about 200 people who were abusing the system by using the platforms to buy foreign currency.

“In the past 12 months, EcoCash handled 1 938 billion transactions worth $225 billion dollars — an average transaction of $116. This means that the limit of $5 000 should cover the great majority of transactions,” said Mr Cross.

“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. 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.”