BCC plans to install POS system in Revenue Hall

Bianca Mlilo Business Reporter
BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) plans to introduce point of sale machines at its Revenue Hall in the central business district to enable ratepayers to pay their bills without using cash. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya recently urged all government departments, public entities and municipalities that provide services on cash basis to the people to promote use of plastic money by installing point-of-sale machines in their banking halls.

Zimbabwe has been going through a biting cash crisis since the beginning of the year as banks fail to meet the demand for cash. This has seen banks in the interim putting a cap on daily withdrawals.

BCC public relations officer Nesisa Mpofu said the local authority was working to have a bill payment system with other commercial banks to ensure convenience for its clients.

“The City of Bulawayo will be installing Point of Sale (POS) machines at its Revenue Hall to ensure convenience to its clients. The installation of POS is expected to be in place soon,” she said.

“We’re working on ensuring that the district offices are also linked to POS so as to ensure installation to all banking halls. Once the system is up we’ll be flighting messages on our bills and other advertising platforms in order to advise our clients.”

Mpofu said residents could also use other payment methods such as Real Time Gross Settlement, EcoCash and Telecash. Bank transfers can be done at CABS, Stanbic Bank and BancABC.

A point-of-sale terminal is a computerised replacement for a cash register. The POS system can include the ability to record and track customer orders, process credit and debit cards, connect to other systems in a network, and manage inventory.

Mangudya in March said plastic money usage accounted for 20 percent of transactions and was targeting to increase the use of plastic money to 80 percent in the next five years.