Published: 27 July 2017

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) says the use of mobile and plastic money has risen to account for 80 percent of transactions in the retail sector.

Addressing delegates at the 'Cash challenges and ban on kaylite' business breakfast recently, CZR president Mr Denford Mutashu commended the Government for putting in place alternative systems of payment (mobile and plastic money) to resolve the cash shortages.

"There has been positive trajectory as far as plastic money usage and it's quite encouraging that about 80 percent of transactions in formal businesses is attributable to plastic and mobile money, and of course the remainder is still cash," said Mr Mutashu.

However the CZR president said the economy is not ready to be cashless considering that around 70 percent of Zimbabweans are still financially excluded hence the need for cash especially in rural communities.

"We are not ready to have a cashless economy, yes we want to see continued use of plastic money, but this country's population dynamics show that 70 percent of the people are in the rural areas and are out of financial inclusion, yet the infrastructure development in terms of point-of-sale (POS) and mobile connectivity is concentrated in the urban areas hence need for more cash circulation," he said.

Meanwhile CZR said it has embraced the regulation that bans kaylites but expressed displeasure over the abrupt ban.

"Retailers have accepted and implemented the ban on kaylite, but we are however not happy with the manner the ban was implemented, it was done overnight, we felt it should have happened gradually or after a dialogue, as business fraternity we feel we were caught unaware," said Mr Mutashu.

The CZR president however bemoaned policy inconsistency since local kaylite manufacturer, Planas was given go- ahead to establish the $6 million manufacturing plant by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and being banned two years down the line.

"Planas invested $6 million for the machinery procurement after a go ahead from EMA and they are being banned two years down the line.

"That is serious policy inconsistence which does not send the right message to investors especially at a time when Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Ministry of Economic planning and investment are doing a lot of work to promote investment," he said.
- BH24