State Media|Banks continued to dispense limited amounts of money to their clients, while some money changers continued to hold on to large sums of the new notes and coins, either obtained legally by accumulating through the informal sector or through questionable allocations by banks.
The money changers who were earlier last week happy to openly display the notes were now a bit cautious and had stashed the money in cars and were only showing it to clients who showed interest in transacting.
While some money changers were sitting on bundles of the new notes and coins, depositors had to stand for hours on end in long winding queues at most banks in the CBD as banks limited withdrawals to between $80 and $300 per person.
CABS and POSB were dispensing $80 on Friday, while CBZ and FBC were dispensing $100.
ZB Bank, Steward Bank, Stanbic Bank, Nedbank, Ecobank and Standard bank were disbursing $300, the maximum that an individual is allowed to withdraw per week.
Bank officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were having to limit the amount they were dispensing to ensure they served as many clients as possible.
Depositors who spoke to The Herald said they were delighted that they were able to access cash, although it was coming in small amounts.
Mr Anesu Mandeya, who arrived at his bank early in the morning, said he was happy that he managed to withdraw his money, although he had to queue for several hours.
“When I got here this (Friday) morning at around 5am there was already a very long queue and I did not expect to get any money because I was number 120,” he said.
“To my surprise, the queue was moving very fast and we all got our money before lunch.”
A security guard at one commercial bank, who did not want to be named, said the queues were longer than usual, but most customers were being served.
“The bank is giving out $80 per person and has been serving about 100 customers daily, but today more than 300 people managed to withdraw cash,” he said.
While some of the queues were orderly, there was chaos at other banks where some people were jumping the queues.
“We arrived at the bank around 5.30am and I was at number 86 but to my surprise some people who came after us and were behind us managed to withdraw money ahead of us because they connived with the security guards or bought numbers from people that were ahead of us,” said one of the depositors.
The RBZ recently announced that it would inject an extra $1 billion into the economy over the next six months to satisfy legitimate demand for cash.
The release of the new $2 and $5 banknotes and $2 coins started on Monday last week.