Cash shortages continue to be reported around Zimbabwe on Monday as banks

struggled to reconfigure equipment to handle the new currency that the
central bank started to distribute on Friday. Sources said the distribution
of new bank notes in smaller denominations has been limited so far and that
old notes remain in circulation in most locations.

Long queues formed outside banks in Harare, Bulawayo, Kwekwe and Gweru
today, according to sources who said bank computers kept crashing after
financial software updates although many banks remained open on Sunday to
give staff time to adapt their systems.
The state-controlled Herald newspaper quoted Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
Governor Gideon Gono as saying cash shortages were the fault of banks, which
he said had planned poorly and did not submit orders to his institution for
the new currency in a timely manner.

Gono insisted the RBZ has enough notes to meet demand, but that the banks do
not have sufficient liquidity to cover the volume of bank note withdrawals
by customers.

-VOA’s Studio 7