RBZ Says You Can Get Paid In Forex But You Won’t Be Able To Withdraw Your Funds

An instruction circular from the RBZ to FBC (and probably other banks) has leaked and the circular focuses on “Employees Salaries Payments in USD“.

The circular notes that in some instances the RBZ can allow a company to pay its employees in USD but that will have the following restrictions:

These funds will only be transferred in an employees Nostro FCA
Accounts funded from these arrangements will not be allowed to withdraw cash – AKA limited access to your forex. AKA we will wipe these accounts clean when it is convenient for us to do so.
Account-holders can’t withdraw their forex – because if they want to transact locally they don’t need US$’s since they were banned after the reintroduction of local currency
The funds in these accounts may be used to settle foreign payments – but your bank will approve these purchases. This will probably result in a limit of what you can actually use the money for but we will see.
Unutilized balances in these accounts will be liquidated after 30 days – remember what I said about your account being wiped clean. This is it.

I’m not sure why any individual would want to open such an account given the limitations and also the topsy-turvy nature of our government and the central bank which could see your account being liquidated before the 30 days or whenever there’s another crisis and they need forex for firefighting purposes.