The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe announced on Saturday that it will launch a rural banking services program to enable communities in rural areas to have access to banking facilities.

The bank governor Gideon Gono made the announcement during an interim review presentation of Project Sunrise which was launched early this month. The program was set to come into operation over the next three months.

"The past 21 days were an astounding revelation, as we came to the shocking reality that the majority of our population has no easy access to banking services," Gono said.

He said in some instances rural communities traveled distances of at least 100 km to reach the nearest banking port, making it highly that such community would retain cash in their granaries.

Gono urged legislators to help the central bank to close this gap as a milestone toward economic development and empowerment of the rural communities.

The modalities of the program would be announced as soon as the implementation logistics was put in place, the governor said.

Source: Xinhua