At least once a month — and sometimes as often as three times a week — a private plane lands in a secure part of Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport on the outskirts of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, carrying millions of US dollars. The pallets of cash are unloaded, broken down into packages, and then distributed to transfer points across the country.
This unusual but legal operation, organized by the country’s biggest mobile money app, Mukuru, illustrates how far companies will go to accommodate customers seeking to avoid the local currency in one of the world’s most dysfunctional economies.
