The Zimbabwean economy has been in a free-fall for the past 24 months and banks have not been spared. After an initial period of profit growth as they profited from a cashless economy, the economy has begun to bite. The latest victim CBZ is closing more of its branches.

They are not the only ones. Last week CABS announced that they were going to be closing 4 more branches. StanChart has been doing the same. The later has turned to technologies such as mobile banking to mitigate the closing of branches but there is no denying the fact that sometimes you just need to walk into a banking hall to get quick service.

These CBZ branches are being closed

Bulawayo Fife Street and Bulawayo JMN Nkomo branches and the JMN Nkomo branch will be closed
Chitungwiza Makoni and Chitungwiza Town Centre branches will be merged. This effectively means the Town Centre branch will be no more.

This follows the closure of Tsholotsho branch. Typically CBZ is encouraging customers to rely more on digital banking. The thing is data is expensive in Zimbabwe and USSD banking using kambudzi phones sucks. Then there are the usual errors that will need a human to sort out.