Introduction
This report present the results of a survey to find out productivity loses emanating from bank queues currently being experienced in the banking sector as the government struggles to contain an acute cash shortage. Employees have been losing productive time trying to get cash from banks.
Summary of Key Findings
• 56.53% of the participants have one personal bank account, 43.13% of the participants have more than one personal bank account and less than 1% have no bank account. • When asked what they use their bank account for 76.98% of the participants indicated that they use the bank account to receive their salary, 2.23% for savings, 17.35% use the account to pay expenses and 3.44% did not specify use. • As could be seen from above most of the participants use ATMs (94%), mobile banking – own bank (42%), mobile banking from mobile companies (59%) and internet banking 52%. • The mode of transacting that is used more frequently is the ATM (92%), mobile banking own bank (57%), mobile banking (61%) and internet banking (44%). • When asked how frequently they visit their banks 13.75% said daily, 40.38% weekly and 45.88% monthly. Roughly over 50% of the participants visit the banking hall every week. • When asked to rank three top reasons why they would visit a banking hall; 80.74% ranked cash withdrawal as number one, 17% ranked cash deposit as number one, 19.58% to submit a bank transfer as number one, 14.86% to submit international bank transfer as number 1, 22.78% to deal with an account related query as number one, 19.78% to get advice on bank products as number one and 21.62% to check balance as number one. • When asked why they would want to visit the bank when there are other payment options most respondents cited the following as the main reasons: o Landlords refuse to accept other methods of payment o To pay for transport o To pay domestics who do not have bank accounts o Some service providers and shops in town demand cash only o Children pocket money • On average employees are spending 2.5 hours every time they visit the bank every week. This roughly translate into $40 million dollars lost in wages paid to employees who are not productive every month using a median wage of $520 per month. If we use an average minimum wage of $250 dollars per months the loss goes down to half. This will translate into slightly below half a billion per year if the cash shortages continue at the current rate. • It is interesting to note that police fines (76.80%) take away most of the cash people withdraw from the bank, followed by domestic workers and facial and hair treatment. • When asked about their feelings on bond notes; 47.8% of the participants said they have a negative impact on the economy.38.49% said not good, but necessary given the current economic conditions while 5.33% said they are good and the remainder did not express any view.
Productivity Loses as a Result of Bank Queques