The ManicaPost
Point of sale (POS) purchases have risen significantly following an increase in swipe machines, whose number is estimated to have so far reached 29 000, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) says.
A recent Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) economic report for the week ending December 9 last year said the value of POS transactions grew by 22 percent to $14 269 million from $11 688 the previous week.
CZR president Denford Mutashu said they would be moving around the country with the RBZ to raise awareness on the use of POS machines.
“As the CZR we are going across the country trying to promote POS because this is actually the way to go for Zimbabweans. Queues have vanished from the banks and it has actually managed to ease the liquidity crunch as well,” he said.
“On Tuesday, we will be in Gokwe with the RBZ trying to promote the usage of POS machines,” Mutashu said.
Mutashu added that POS transacting was contributing positively to an increase in sales per day.
“It’s quiet significant that in retail we have noticed that there has been a tremendous increase in terms of the contribution by the point of sale transacting to the overall sales on each day to about 70 percent,” he said, adding there was however need to educate the majority of Zimbabweans on the importance of using the POS.
“We also need to ensure that the generality of Zimbabweans are actually involved. There is an increase of those that already have bank cards but we have a large population that does not have bank cards, probably around 80 percent that has to be captured in the financial inclusion matrix,” he said.
Mutashu lashed out at some retailers who were refusing to accept use of plastic money and commended Parliament for passing legislation that would criminalize such conduct. — New Ziana.