Harare — Zimbabwe’s banking sector was thrown into disarray this week after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) reported a technical fault on its network that disrupted settlement systems and electronic transactions across the financial sector. The disruption, which began on Monday, 18 August, affected the central bank’s real-time gross settlement (RTGS) platform, forcing delays in payments, settlements on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, and routine retail transactions. Commercial banks, retailers, and local authorities were all hit, with businesses unable to access official exchange rates to guide pricing decisions.
Timeline of Disruption
- Monday, 18 August: The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s network failure begins, leading to a major disruption of the RTGS payment system.
- Tuesday, 19 August: Widespread outages are reported across the banking sector. The RBZ issues a statement acknowledging the “technical challenge” and states that it is working to restore services. Banks and other financial institutions, including CABS and the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, are unable to process transactions and settlements. The RBZ’s official website goes offline, making the official exchange rate for the ZiG currency unavailable.
- Wednesday, 20 August: The RBZ announces that its systems have been restored. While some services resume, the incident has already caused significant economic and public frustration.
Public Frustration Grows The outage sparked widespread frustration among customers and corporates, many of whom reported stalled transfers and an inability to complete critical transactions. Financial institutions, including the Central African Building Society, confirmed that services were down, citing the RBZ system as the source of the disruption. Market analysts warned that outages of this scale risk undermining confidence in the country’s financial infrastructure, particularly at a time when the central bank is promoting the gold-backed Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency as a stabilisation measure.
The RBZ’s Official Statement In response, the RBZ issued the following statement on Tuesday:
“The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe wishes to notify all stakeholders of a technical challenge being experienced on our network. This is affecting most systems and may result in delays in some banking services. We are working diligently to restore all services and will be providing updates as necessary. We appreciate your patience and understanding.”
By Wednesday evening, the RBZ confirmed that its systems had been restored, though questions remain about the underlying cause of the outage and whether similar disruptions could reoccur.
Economic Implications For Zimbabwe’s economy—already grappling with inflationary pressures and liquidity constraints—the incident underscores the fragility of its financial infrastructure. Payment systems are the backbone of economic activity, and even short-term failures can ripple through supply chains, consumer spending, and investor confidence.
