POS machines new illegal method of transferring huge sums of money on streets
Continuous illegal foreign currency transactions have revealed the wanton abuse of the government’s ease of doing business reforms as point-of-sale machines are being used to transfer huge amounts of...
Continuous illegal foreign currency transactions have revealed the wanton abuse of the government’s ease of doing business reforms as point-of-sale machines are being used to transfer huge amounts of money by dealers chasing the United States dollar.
Over the past few years, Zimbabwe has been registering phenomenal growth in the area of financial inclusion, with online transactions making more people access convenient ways of transacting.
However, some economic players have gone on to abuse the policy, by applying for point-of-sell machines only to deploy them to their agents in the streets.
Normal cash withdrawals for the Zimbabwean Dollar, Zipit transfers and Real Time Gross Settlements across banks have limits, while the point of sale is the only platform without value limitation, hence the current wanton abuse.
A development economist, Titus Mukove says it is now incumbent upon financial regulators to employ the Know Your Customer principle on holders of POS machines as their continued unregulated use is a threat to economic stability.
“There is excessive pressure on the exchange rate which is being felt of cause in the general increase in prices and there are some economic agents such as money changers who have found loopholes in POS machines to undertake their sabotaging activities and I call upon financial institutions to nip the abuse of POS machines through KYCs,” he said.
The country’s treasury and monetary authorities have already announced a cocktail of measures meant to weed out financial indiscipline at every level of the economy towards sustainable macroeconomic stability.
About Eddie Zvinonzwa
Staff Writer