Progress towards SADC foreign exchange

The Citizen - PRETORIA - 17 / 02/ 2009

Progress was being made towards the goal of travellers being able to exchange foreign currency in SADC countries, the Southern Africa Postal Operators Association (Sapoa) said on Tuesday.

“The process is now in its implementation stage,” said Sapoa executive director Kaynet Moyo.

This followed a February quarterly meeting of Sapoa officers. The meeting was a follow up to a decision last May to give Southern African Development Community postal operators the opportunity to run exchange bureaux.

“This means that once the Post Office has finalised the legal formalities with the relevant reserve banks, customers will be able to walk into any post office and exchange money, as is now the case in Zambia and Zimbabwe,” said Moyo.

This would form a 'one-stop shop’ which provided improved access to money transfers and delivery networks.

Sapoa said it would also publish a customer charter, detailing service levels that should be expected within the SADC region.