No more DStv for some Zimbabweans as bank runs out of cash: report
Zimbabwean Steward Bank has suspended payments to South Africa’s DStv, as it has run out of foreign cash to pay its bills, Reuters reports.
Steward Bank, a unit of mobile telephony operator Econet Wireless, said in a statement that it was forced to suspend all payments for the popular pay-TV service so that it could more effectively allocate foreign funds in its critical reserve.
“With immediate effect, the bank has suspended DStv payments for all account classes (except premium),” the bank said.
Zimbabwean banks have been forced to put limits on withdrawals due to cash shortages, and dollar shortages, as well as other foreign currencies, which in turn have crippled the country’s financial sector.
The IMF estimates that around $700 million is in circulation around Zimbabwe, but most of that is outside the formal banking sector.
Zimbabweans hold foreign currency as the Zim dollar is effectively without value. The currency was officially scrapped after it hit 35 quadrillion (that’s 35,000,000,000,000,000) Zim dollars against a single US dollar.
The struggling state relies on currencies including the rand, Botswana’s pula as well as the Chinese yuan more recently.
The country’s stock exchange trades shares with a total value of around $100.
Read: Zimbabwe’s stock market trades just R1,500 worth of shares
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