Harare, Zimbabwe (News of the South)-The Zimbabwe Cross Border Traders Association (ZCBA) has called upon its members to open MasterCard accounts as a way of circumnavigating the issue of bond notes when going to purchase products outside.
Bond notes which came in last Monday have been a cause of concern for many traders who are lost as to how they will acquire products from outside the country whilst trading locally using the bond notes.
The new currency is not recognised outside the country.
Speaking to a group of associations that included members of the National Vendors Association of Zimbabwe (NAVUZ) and Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) the leader of ZCBA Mr Augustine Tawanda said this was only a mitigatory stop gap measure as they engaged government on the wider issue.
“We are urging our members who are traders to open MasterCard accounts in banks so that when they go out they just use their cards and acquire products for their tables and shops”.
“That’s the short term solution that we have decided upon whilst we continue working with the government to create long term solutions to the issue of the bond notes”, he said.
Augustine also stated that his organisation has created a card that identifies cross border traders so as to avoid abuse and corruption during business trips.
“This is a membership card that will identify a person as an informal trader so that in case of problems we can stand in for them”.
The assembled informal traders raised myriad concerns at the somewhat fraudulent nature of bond notes which only work locally.
“People are beginning to rate the bond note and that’s very bad for business because we are losing profitability when changing the bond notes back to US notes”, one trader said.
Government has described bond notes as an export incentive to encourage exports but the gimmick has failed to get traction as the currency has simply flooded the informal sector where no exports exist.
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