There was drama in the streets of Kabwe this afternoon when a street vender refused to collect a K10.00 rebased note, previously K10, 000 from a customer, saying she did not want to be duped.
This was after a customer handed a rebased note to an old woman, who only identified herself as Bana Mpundu, to purchase tomatoes valued at K8.00, (K8, 000), from her stand.
Bana Mpundu practically refused to collect the money and demanded the return of her merchandise, saying she did not want to lose her goods by obtaining a fake note.
In an interview with ZANIS, Bana Mpundu said she did not understand why a person would come into town all the way from home just to give her a foreign currency, especially on New Year’s Day.
She unwittingly complained that it is unfair for people to dupe elderly people like her because they are struggling to make ends meet with little resources that they have.
Bana Mpundu, however, recalled that she once used a similar note in the Kaunda era, but unknown to her is the fact that the Zambian Kwacha has been rebased with effect from today by way of cancelling the three zeros.
Moreover, after a profound explanation from her fellow street vendors, David Mwape, Bana Mpundu accepted to collect the money but on condition that Mr Mwape exchanges his old Ten Thousand Kwacha note with the new currency.
Bana Mpundu, aged over 55, is just one of the many Zambians that have no absolute knowledge on the rebased currency and definitely need sensitization.
Meanwhile, Kabwe’s famous Shopping Mall, Shoprite and Restaurant, Hungry Lion, closed business abruptly because the shop assistants had trouble understanding the rebased currency.
A check by ZANIS found the two shops closed by 10:00 hours in the morning, because the shop assistants had trouble assimilating the transactions in the rebased currency.
Some of the shop assistants talked to said they had trouble reconciling prices in the rebased currency as most of their items and food had a segment of Ngwees but that they did not understand the modalities, except for block figures.
They said they needed a lot of sensitization, not only from the Bank of Zambia (BOZ) but their employers as well, because the new financial system now entails that they must give their clients the symmetries, accordingly.
They, therefore, closed the shops, saying they will only resume operations once their managers, whom they contacted from Lusaka, give them a substantive in-house training on the new currency.
And NATSAVE Bank in Kabwe today broke its record of latency when it happened to be the only banking institution that had operational ATM machines.
All the banks were non-operational except for NATSAVE.
The only challenge was that the bank had no VISA services to allow inter-banking services, and as a result, only indigenous customers had an opportunity to use the facility.
Nonetheless, the three banks promised to resume their ATM machine banking services by 14:00 hours today while ZANACO hopes to resume its operations tomorrow.
ZANIS
Ha ha ha.Ilyashi lya bana Mpundu ili lyawama sana.
Shop owners had ample time to train employees on how to handle the new notes. Generally, people in Kabwe are very dull because of the severe pollution they live with.
You are right Nubian, they have no on to blame but themselves for their loss of business.
generaly kabwe people are too sharp thats why they have picked on them;dull ones are every where.
From my experience, training is one thing. But reality or practise is another thing. so even if one had spent 1 year training. It will take a while to understanding the new kwacha and do proper transaction
Why do insult innocent people iwe, wabe itole.
Kabwe people are very sleek and not dull. They are persuasive and not compromised. Ask MMD in the Chiluba era….Kabwe is the only town that rejected an imposed candidate. UNIP used Kabwe for their conventions too in case you do not know…why bcoz Kabwe is a strategic location ****** we @ Nubian Princess
always a dumb-wit even in this new year. Since you talk about masters and PhDs, what and where is the causal evidence linking lead to your alleged dullness of the people in Kabwe?
My dear, you are so dull more than the people you are refering to, this is infact very normal, it can happen to anyone more so to those people who didnt go far in education. Thats why it is important to explain clearly to everyone, even those who are educated can somehow find it difficult at first, it has to register in peoples minds, they have been millionaires for years so it’s so normal, am finding it even hard to write or speak very good english because i hardly use it, i even forget how to spell “the” at times.I also get confused each time i visit zed with the money, i once payed 5times more to a cab driver cos the notes were so similar i only realised afterwards. You are so dull, you just open your mouth anyhow, or you want to show some poor guy that you are clever?
Whatever your chima name is,you are the dull one here. How dare you generalize, have you conducted conclusive research to ascertain your toilet assumptions? The least you can do is understand that it will take time for all Zambians to adjust to the rebased money. You are a kama bladi fu,shut your kama stinking trap kashetani iwe.
Iwe ka Nubian Princes wilatu tuka fwebena kabwe. Waba shani kanshi? Nalemona kwati ulikamano kanshi uli ka nangwa. Get a life!
Everything is rebased today. Including Lusaka Times. The site has become less attractive
Street vendors not understanding re-basing is acceptable but shop assistants in reputable business establishments like Shoprite and Hungry Lion not able to get it… is just utterly disappointing on their top management.
Overall I blame Bank of Zambia, Gov’t media outlets like Times, Daily and ZNBC for not doing enough to sensitised public on the simple arithmetic behind re-basing scheme.
* ……..enough to sensitise the public……….
Ya ! eventually every body will get to the party,change takes long to sink in.Bank of Zambia ! on your feet to more remote area not covered yet by your sensitaisation.# 2 your last line in your comment is regratable and very unfortunate please withdraw it.Please not ;unproductive blogging not allowed.
its such a shame that the sensitisation process did not hit the right target. the marketeers,street venders and shop attendants should have been the first pepole to be sensitised. tekubwelela inuma nomba ukuu…
thaat is expected. i foresee alot of shortages and in some cases huge profits from errors resulting in giving change.
You must be dull indeed, Nubian Princess, if you are living in America. Don’t stereotype.
She just had to be Bemba lol
Now Thats funny!!
generalizing is being dull!
LT what has happened to your beautiful website? It’s now looking untidy.
There is nothing difficult about rebasing. Just divide by 1 000 . What so difficult about it? For example you have 12300, this will be ( divided by 1000) 12 ZMW and 30 ngwee. Unless you are just genetically dull.
Peace and Prosperity to Mother Zambia.
There is nothing complicated about rebasing the currency, it’s simply removing extra zero to two decimal places, standard. During Kaunda time we had normal currency from K50 to 1Ngwee, i left Zambia in 1990 when £1.00 was to a Kwacha K26.00 so £5.00 would get you K130.00, £10.00 would get you K260.00 and £100.00 would get you K1, 260.00 easy and simple. Not sure what happened when Chiluba came in power in 1991, the Country collapsed. Finally, nearly 20 years of mismanagement things are being corrected, thank god and be grateful. The old currency used to confuse me when i came on holiday, but the new currency will not because i grew up using the normal currency, Kwacha and Ngwee. Looking forward to my next holiday to my beautiful Motherland. HAPPY NEW YEAR! One Zambia One Nation. :-)
Oops! ZANACO kabwe is just working fine, I used it without any issues. Maybe it had issues in the morning but as for the afternoon, it was working fine as i used it. i think the rebasing move is a noble cause that should be supported. just that we have some zambian who will ALWAYS try to find something negative to say, all in the name of democracy and freedom of speech but instead just proving their folly! eish!
Yaba…ati even nama s.ex workers (ama wule) dont like the new rebased kwacha. Balefwaya fye old currency – so who will sensitise them kanshi? Kanshi the old currency is worthwhile – for now at least!!
DURING NORTHERN RHODESIA DAYS USING TICKY AND SUSU AND SHILLINGS WERE GOOD OLD TIME AND THAN DURING K.K RULE WE LOVED USING THE ZAMBIAN POUNDS AND LATER THE KWACHAS AND NGWEES THOESE WERE REAL GOOD OLD DAYS UNTIL THE M.MD CROOKS WHO TOOK OVER IN 91 AND MESSED UP OUR LOVELY MOTHER ZAMBIA.I AM THANKFULL TO THE PF GOVT AND BA SATA FOR BRINGING BACK THE GOOD DAYS TO THE ZAMBIAN PEOPLE.I WOULD LIKE TO CONGRATULATE THE PF GOVT FOR MAKING ZAMBIA A GOOD PLACE TO STAY AND TO INVEST. COME ON OPPOSITION PARTIES AND THEIR STOOGES STOP YOUR MOANINGS AND SUPPORT THE GOVT OF THE DAY AND DEVELOP OUR MOTHER ZAMBIA.CHILUBA AND RUPIA HAD WRECKED ZAMBIAN ECONOMY IN THE LAST 20 YEARS NOW THE ZAMBIANS HAVE A HOPE FOR A BETTER LIFE .THANKS TO ALL MIGHTY GOD FOR BLESSING US SATA AS OUR PRESIDENT
Well said Kachingaba, i personally had the best up bringing in the mines we had everything we needed best hospitals, schools you name it, we had all the facilities as children to use libraries, sports facilities you name it. Lucky lucky us. I came to England in 1990 at 19 years old went back in 1992 for holidays and i could not believe the poverty in a short space of time. It was really sad, luckly my mother had retired then and we were all educated my brothers and sisters all went to UNZA for free some were sponsored by the mines abroad and their children have benefited as a result. I pray for PF and Sata to continue their good work, one day my motherland will be back to the good days for all to enjoy.
Sorry i meant to say the were no power cut.
Sorry i meant to say the were no power cuts.
Sorry i meant to say the were no power cuts.
Well said. I wished your presentation was in small letters.
Izobole refused to get my K200 and told me to go to hell and keep my ka K200. She wanted to be paid K100,000 instead. Here comes inflation….
My Bemba Mbuya ndalama zabadabwisa lol. Ku Kabwe nikumundzi of a town or city Mwe. Nafi Lead poisoning bantu, even banks and retail conglomerates are failing to function lol.
haha! she is sharp my dear, she does not want to be duped.
I hope people are not thinking this means the economy has improved some; coz it hasn’t. Just sayin’
It took MMD nearly 20 years of corruption and mismanagement to ruin the economy and it will take another 20 years to fix it. A least Sata is on the right track, i know how good Zambia was during the good times. Government and mine hospitals had no shortages, they had everything they needed to treat patients and the were power cuts. Now if you have no money you can’t educate your children or buy them basic things. It’s So wrong! Anyway, i am very positive that Zambia will grow stronger slowly for the majority to benefit in the future.
Sorry i meant to say the were no blackouts.
@Diana; the rebasing of the Kwacha has nothing to do with the alleged genious of Mr Sata. This was a BOZ project that was initiated by ex Governor Dr Fundanga in 2007. The BOZ gave themselves a period of 5 years of sustained single digit inflation before wiping off the three zeros from the Kwacha aka rebasing. Dr Fundanga is the man who needs to be praised for his decade long tenure at the BOZ in which he managed monetary policy prudently. He brought inflation down to single digits and managed to build Forex reserves for the country.
This is so stupid. Why I mean why on earth would the government NOT make sure that people were sensitised enough before this rebasing exercise was made official? Yes, like all things, am sure with time it will get better but they should have made it priority to make sure that the majority understood what this entire exercise is all about. BOZ should also take some blame here as well. Chansoni sana.
Ba LT, I should also mention that, your rebased website is now looking rather…unattractive.
Rebased website, kikikikiki
pipo condeming the face lift of this site are as resistant to change as Kana Mpundu.
well done bana mpundu why accept wht u dont understand.
yes, they went round the country and spending a lot of tax payers money explaining that 5000 will be K5, 10000 will be K10, but really they forgot to REALLY explain to the RIGHT AUDIENCE that if someone gives you K10 and they want to buy something worth 8550, you will need Ks $ Ns to reconcile the change. and oh yes the Ns were not yet in circulation until tday! so whos to blame!!!
Bana Mpundu is just dull!
believe me, it’s you who is dull…
And above all the president
LT,you face is looking ugly. Naibipa sana…….. mayo wandi nampundu wansekesha.
Aleni you can go ahead and rebase everything, the stomachs, the intestines because money, food and some names have been rebased. My friend Billion Banda is now rebased to Million Banda………………
Bana Mpundu is not just well informed and we should expect this from many other areas across the country. There is too much crookedness in the country such that the older people do not trust and believe everything especially if information has not been communicated properly. The rebasing is a good thing and hopefully people will get used to it as soon as possible for easier and smooth transactions! Bravo PF!
Personally I dont think BoZ did enough sensitisation on these notes. of course there were posters around, but that was MOSTly in the urban areas, and those who can easily understand a rebased note just by looking at it. but where sensitisation was really needed, there was very little done.
Mr Chikwanda or was it Gondwe was talking about security features…. who even knows what security features are? The average man on the street doesnt, people just want to use their money, without being swindled. .
anyhow, the money is here so lets get on with it.
People always forget that Michael was part of the destruction of the first 10 tens of MMD rule. So we should debate in terms him undoing the damage he caused to our beloved country. For 10 years he was top advice to Fredrick. In any case he doesn’t seem to have a clear agenda for the country.
It takes 100 coins of 1 ngwee value to make 1 kwacha but in the old currency did it take 100 ten kwacha notes to make 1000 kwacha? This is the source of the confusion I guess…
Bloggers, I have been informed that someone has already named his baby girl, Rebase. You know the provinces that are known for such names. The can only be Southern and Eastern, kekekekekekeke.
Wow! we are two of the most hard working provinces, where crookedness and corruption are normal, two provinces we all know. Eastern province and Southern province feed Zambia my friend do your research.
Two provinces, Luapula and northern are crooked. need I mention names?
re based Lusaka times
Nice comments section design,how i wish comments coming from one person using different names can also be noted
Zambians you never stop to amuse me. why get excited, rebasing of a currency is false economics. Deal with inflation issues and when prices start to come down and salaries remain within inflation levels withdraw high notes from circulation. Learn from zimbambwe. Rebasing the currency with the current inflation levels and economical issues is unsustainable. expect soon to have a hign note.
BOZ did a very very very poor job on sensitiazation. ba LT ni new year format?
@ 2 Nubian Princess am not disputing your assertion, but it would be authentic if you premised it on some research findings, I have spent most of my life in Kabwe and here where am prying my trade in a multi-cutural, actually international environment heading a section, am not considered dull, there are also a number of people from Kabwe I know who are doing very well, intellectually.
Its mere stupidity with unfounded conclusions. I was born and bred in “lead-filled” Kabwe but doing very well for myself (professionally and academically) where am based so not this crap about our town and its people. Kapuba sana, kafwaika ukuya kebisha mufi dizz fyakwaNatuseko kakasalapuke.
@ 2 Nubian Princess I know lead has some effects on human beings and animals, but people reacts differently even when exposed to the same conditions. This is attributed to factors among others such as genetical- make up. So you cant just say of everyone in Kabwe as dull, because there are also people older than you there, there could even be your own relatives living in Kabwe. Reconsidr your ways, repent and seek forgivineess. Isaiah 1:18-19. God loves you.
Even me i can not accept at this point in time. Too many thieves pa z. Already we have heard that there are people making silly trick.
Waoh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I mentioned it yesterday in my comments that GRZ should explain to the people, the entire Government is dull! how cant you make such major changes and dont take time to educate the masses? Honestly speaking i feel more a genieus than ever!
THIS IS WHAT MINISTER OF LABOUR WAS TALKING ABOUT. GOVERNMENT PAID BANK OF ZAMBIA BILLIONS TO SENSITIZE CITIZENS- INCLUDING PRINTING SENSITIZATION MATERIAL IN VERNACULAR BUT BANK OF ZAMBIA DECIDED TO EAT THE MONEY INSTEAD OF SPENDING IT ON TEACHING CITIZENS. THAT’S THE RESULT, NOW.
Did BOZ do their homework??
Those notes do so resempble the old noted we used to have except maybee that ***** kaundas face is not there. All this confusion just shows you how uneducated the populace is .
DID THE PAMA-FI GOVT DO ANY AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS TO INFORM PIPO ABOUT THE NEW NOTES? BCOZ THEY LOOK LIKE THE OLD UNIP NOTES EXCEPT WITHOUT KAUNDA’S UGLY FACE….
Indeed Lusaka Times has been re-based! ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
some people are naturally dull
I wished this blog had a facility to report abuse and block offenders. There is no need for insults to be acceptable at all.