Harare - Zimbabweans are spending an average of 2.5 working
hours in banking queues every week, according to a survey conducted by Industrial Psychology
Consultants (IPC).
"This roughly translates into $40m lost in wages paid
to employees who are not productive every month, using a median wage of $520 per
month.
"This will translate into slightly below half a billion
US dollars per year if the cash shortages continue at the current rate."
In summarising the findings, IPC said the losses to
employers will be much higher if the cash shortages worsen.
"If we add actual productive losses due to unmanned
work stations, the losses are staggering," said IPC.
At least 83.8% of the respondents said they visit banking
halls during working hours.
Zimbabwe has been going through a damaging cash crisis that
has seen depositors joining bank queues as early as 03:00 to gain access to
cash.
Zimbabwe is deep in the throes of a cash crisis that has
resulted in some banks limiting cash withdrawal limits to as little as $20 per
week.
Zimbabwe currently has $140m worth of bond notes, $23m of bond coins and an estimated $400m to $600m in circulation in the economy.