Stanbic Bank has unveiled a debit card that will help tobacco farmers transact this farming season.
by STAFF REPORTER
The card can be accessed by any tobacco farmer as long as they have an identity card and a growers’ number.
Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe head of marketing and corporate affairs, Palmer Mugavha said the card has no minimum opening deposit required.
“As Stanbic Bank, we understand the big challenges faced by tobacco farmers, which include poor rains and dry land cropping. Most importantly, the need for funding is paramount and so is the need for the development of convenient, relevant and appropriate banking solutions for tobacco farmers and farming in general,” he said.
The card has no monthly service fee and it will receive payments of tobacco sales proceeds in a safe and convenient manner, as well as ensuring that one does not have to carry large sums of cash, among its benefits.
Card holders can access cash through Stanbic machines or other ZimSwitch automated teller machines (ATMs) and points of sale (POS) terminals countrywide, while it affords the option to transfer funds between one’s account and EcoCash.
Stanbic has been rolling out a number of products to cater for its clients. Recently, the bank unveiled the Platinum Visa card for the bank’s high net worth and elite clients.
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Stanbic Bank head of personal and business banking, Brian Ndadzungira said the launch of the Platinum Visa card had ushered into the country a much sought-after product.
Meanwhile, Stanbic has refuted media reports that its ATMs in Bulawayo rolled out the South African rand instead of United States dollars.
Mugavha said the financial institution had never loaded rand notes or any other currency besides the United States dollar into any of its ATMs countrywide since the commencement of multi-currency usage in 2009.
He said the bank treats the issuance of a different currency from the ATMs as a new product offering and would communicate this to its customers through various media channels.
“Where matters are within our control, we avoid surprising our customers with such developments. While the South African rand is legal tender, we utilise the United States dollar only in our machines, as it is the most widely used currency around the country and so it is not true that our ATMs in Bulawayo issued the South African rand,” Mugavha said.
“Our statement on Twitter and Facebook did not state that we were switching currencies to resolve the poor quality notes incident that had caused a temporary shortage. It clearly stated that we had sourced better quality notes that would normalise the cash availability from our machines.
“Cash is readily available from all our branches and ATMs. From our ATMs, the cash is strictly United States dollar. We have not configured the machines to dispense a different currency and from the banking halls, one can withdraw cash in the currency of their choice which is legal tender.”
