Before you start

Passport and valid permit
Proof of Bulawayo address
Employer letter
Passport photographs

Step-by-step

1
Open a foreign currency account first
The RBZ's exchange control guidelines set out an individual FCA funded with salaries, diaspora remittances, donations and foreign currency cash deposits. This is the account your dollar salary should land in.
In personWho: You
2
Open the local-currency account alongside it
Bulawayo City Council rates and anything billed in ZiG are easier from a ZWG account. Ask for both at the same appointment.
In personWho: You
3
Register mobile money
EcoCash on Econet, OneMoney on NetOne. The ZiG and USD wallets are separate pots — check which one you are being paid into.
Mobile appWho: You
4
Set up inbound remittances properly
If money will reach you from South Africa or the UK, compare the formal channels — bank-to-FCA, the licensed money transfer agents and the operator wallets — on the all-in cost, not the headline rate. In this city that comparison is worth doing carefully because the flow is regular rather than occasional.
OnlineWho: You
5
Bring clean small US notes
The shortage of US coins and low-denomination bills is chronic nationwide, and torn or heavily marked notes get refused outright. Change from a twenty will often come back as ZiG.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport
Valid permit
Proof of Bulawayo address
Employer letter
Passport photographs

Things most newcomers don’t know

The central bank's own account categories name remittances, and in Bulawayo that is the point.

The RBZ's FCA definition lists diaspora remittances alongside salaries as a legitimate funding source. The 2022 census recorded 17,840 South Africa-born residents in Bulawayo province and the movement runs both ways — for many households here, the cross-border transfer is the salary.

Source: RBZ Foreign Exchange Guidelines FXD5, March 2026; ZIMSTAT 2022 census

Compare remittance channels on the all-in cost, once, properly.

If money arrives every month rather than occasionally, a percentage point of spread compounds into real money over a year. Newcomers default to whatever their family already uses and never re-check it. Do the comparison in your first month.

Source: community-reported, consistently

Small clean notes are worth more than their face value here.

Nationwide there is a shortage of low-denomination US bills, and it is more acute outside Harare. A stack of clean singles and fives is the most useful thing you can physically bring into the country, and you cannot obtain them once you are inside it.

Source: community-reported, consistently

Electronic payment is taxed and cash is not.

The transfer tax applies to money moved electronically. On rent and deposits this is a real number, and it is a large part of why Bulawayo landlords ask for cash — not evasion, arithmetic.

Source: ZIMRA — Intermediated Money Transfer Tax

Common mistakes to avoid

Opening only a ZWG account and then being paid in dollars.
Arriving with only large notes, or with notes that are torn or taped.
Assuming a card works everywhere — kombis, markets and small traders are cash and mobile money.
Never re-checking the remittance channel you set up in your first week.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.