Zimpapers Logo

In a telephone interview from Harare, CZI chief executive officer Mr Clifford Sileya said the meeting was necessitated by the anxiety surrounding the state of the banking industry amid several challenges facing the financial services             sector.
“Recently, industry has had a serious anxiety about the state of the banking sector in the country following reports that bank transfers such as Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) were since December last year taking longer than expected to clear,” he said.

RTGS is a funds transfer mechanism where transfer of money takes place from one bank branch to another on a “real time and gross” basis.
The mechanism is the fastest possible money transfer system through the banking channel as the settlement takes place in “real time” which means payment transaction is not queued or staggered subjecting the transaction to any waiting periods.
This effectively means the transaction is settled as soon as it is processed without bunching with any other transaction.

In the past few weeks, there was a public outcry following the failure by financial institutions to process on time payments made through RTGS.
“When banks were failing to process RTGS, industry was left anxious to know whether banks were closing down or their systems were crashing.
“Through the Matabeleland Chamber of Industries, we have invited Dr Gono to Rainbow Hotel in Bulawayo on Thursday next week to come and address captains of industry on the state of the banking sector,” he said.

The Matabeleland Chamber of Industries (MCI) is an affiliate body representing CZI members in the Matabeleland region.
MCI president Dr Ruth Labode yesterday confirmed the pending meeting with Dr Gono.
She said the business community     in Matabeleland would be meeting     Dr Gono to explain everything regarding this year’s monetary policy statement as well as address them on the state of the financial services sector.

“We are expecting Dr Gono to address everything regarding the monetary policy statement, state of the banking sector and the issue regarding the financial services marginalisation in Bulawayo and Matabeleland at large,” she said.

She said the Reserve Bank governor was the one with the muscles to address financial services marginalisation.
Due to the alleged marginalisation, industries in Matabeleland have in the past met adverse situations in accessing loans from banks.

For example, when companies in Bulawayo apply for loans, the applications are approved in Harare resulting in the process taking longer such that by the time the application is approved resources being loaned out would have been exhausted.