Informal money transfers between Zimbabwe and countries such as the United States and neighbouring South Africa that bypass banks are growing in popularity.

Leon Ngwenya, who once worked in South Africa, earns a living in this new market.

"I have a brother who is in South Africa. If someone wants to send money to Zimbabwe, that person goes to my brother and gives him the cash. As soon as that is done my brother sends me an SMS with the details of the person who sent the money and those of the person who should collect it from me. Once that is done, the money is ready for collection," said Ngwenya.

The method is faster and cheaper than bank transfers. Instead of someone going to the bank to transfer the money that reflects in the Zimbabwean banks after four working days, this system works in almost real time, with the person getting the money instantly.

"I charge only R20 for R1000. On an average day I can get orders from about 20 clients which amounts to R400 a day. I can make as much as R12 000 a month. No civil servant earns this kind of money a month. Only a few in the private sector do. My money is tax-free," said Ngwenya.

His clients are Zimbabweans working in SA. Some of them do menial jobs that don't require them to earn receive salaries through the banks. Even those paid through the banks use this service because it is cheaper. Most Zimbabweans working in SA are undocumented and these people form the base of Ngwenya's business.

In his monetary policy statement a fortnight ago, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono introduced more stringent measures in the fight against money laundering. "The money market is currently inundated with challenges resulting from worsening liquidity, delayed cash payments and illegal externalisation of cash.

"To complement these measures the banking public is strongly encouraged to use real-time gross settlement funds," Gono said.

However, individuals and businesses that send money out of the country to destinations such as the United Kingdom prefer the illegal money transfer system. The banking sector is still struggling to gain the public's trust, with several banks facing closure if they fail to comply with the Reserve Bank's rules. This has caused panic in the financial sector, with more people resorting to the parallel industry.

"I deal with people in the transport industry, catering and other fields. For instance, when those in the trucking industry want to buy spare parts and machinery in the UK, from where most of their trucks are imported, they use my money transfer system because I have a points person in England who always has cash and buys their things while they pay me here," said Sihle Ncube, who does money transfers between Zimbabwe and the UK.

Over the years there have been moves by the government and independent organisations to tap into the diaspora community funds.

One of them is an investment vehicle - dubbed the Diaspora Fund - but nothing has come out of the initiative.

There is also the Homelink project from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Its mandate initially was to engage Zimbabweans abroad to buy or build homes while they paid the organisation in hard currency during the Zimbabwean dollar hyper-inflation era.