BY HARRIET CHIKANDIWA Pan African banking group BancABC Zimbabwe has launched the City Hopper Service, a smart local remittance service which allows customers to send foreign currency between cities throughout Zimbabwe instantly. Speaking at the launch , BancABC chief executive Lance Mambondiani said the City Hopper is meant to address the nationwide challenge of sending foreign currency across the country for the wider public and those who want to support their families or pay for goods and services and other business activities in foreign currency’. “With the stabilisation of the foreign currency market in the last few weeks, banks have an important role to play as intermediaries and custodians of trusted platforms.” “This service offers the safest and quickest way to transfer foreign currency across cities and will address the problem faced by all Zimbabweans in moving money across towns,” Mambondiani said. He said he is excited to be taking banking to the communities in which we operate together working with our various partners with extensive reach across the country’. The service is available to all customers from different banks and can transfer from as little as US$10, the sender is simply required to provide an address, phone number and national identification number on the deposit slip. “The receiver can access the transferred funds instantly; all he or she has to do is go to a BancABC outlet and provide a reference number and a copy of his/her national I.D to cash out the funds. The service is expected to increase the transfer of funds through the formal channels similar to the international remittances which use platforms such as World Remit, Western Union or MoneyGram. “The service will provide much needed relief in the movement of foreign currency across the country especially for the unbanked population who have difficulties sending or receiving USD for some essential services demanding USD payments from some service providers,” Mambondiani said.