Gweru, July16, 2010 - The President of the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe,(BAZ) Sij Biyam said failure by individuals and companies to bank money had contributed to the liquidity crunch.

Speaking at a business conference here, he said Zimbabwe’s economy had been informalised and argued that, ‘those in the informal sector hardly banked their monies with banks, instead they prefered to keep their monies under mattresses,” leaving banks with unstable deposits.

He said that there was also need to avoid heavy marketing regulation as this in the past had affected banks.

Speaking at the same occassion, Prince Mupazvinho, who was representing the Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere, denied that the Indigenisation Act  had a knock on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange or scared away investors.

'The timing is correct as the regulations ensure stability. We want to make sure there is stability and this is achieved by the fact that investors invest knowing about the Indigenisation Act and come on board with full information rather than letting them come in to invest and later after investment are told about the 51%,” he said.

Mupazvinho said the Act will also create a platform to make those participating in the informal economy come on board as formal actors.

The Zimbabwe National Chamber Commerce (ZNCC) congress being held in Gweru for the first time  under the theme , “From Stability to Economic Growth” is being used by the Zimbabwean  business community to explore ways of how the the economy can be improved.