Mobile Money Operator, EcoCash Zimbabwe which went down this morning has announced on its Twitter page that the service is back up and running.

EcoCash post on social media reads as follows.

Dear Valued Customer

We are happy to advise that all EcoCash services are fully restored and are working normally. You can now Do a Bank to Wallet, Send Money, Pay ZESA, Pay Merchant, buy Airtime and Pay Bills smoothly from your ZWL wallet and you can also Cash-In US$, Send US$ and Cash-Out US$.

Thank you for your patience and we again apologise for all inconveniences caused.

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OneMoney’s domestic remittance service (OneMoney Remit) has announced that it is no longer charging its 3% fee for the first transaction you make and if you are sending anything US$10 or more.

Introducing the OneMoney Remit Zero Charges promotion!! Send at least USD 10 locally using OneMoney Remit and enjoy:

· Zero charges for your first transaction.

· Receiver collects money at no cost.

· Cash guaranteed at all NetOne shops nationwide.

OneMoney Remit on Twitter

This is really interesting because it appears that OneMoney Remit is going up against EcoCash Remittance’s Dollar for Dollar promotion that is giving back up to US$10 if you send ten dollars or more back into your EcoCash FCA Wallet.

EcoCash set aside US$10,000 for its promo and this is the second running of the promotion. It looks like OneMoney’s remittance service is looking to do the same but not by giving away money. Instead, the NetOne-owned mobile money service has opted for what we have seen from money transfer agents like Senditoo and Shumba Money.

Taxes raining on OneMoney’s parade…

I am guessing the hope is someone will at least give OneRemit a try and maybe stick around if it is to their liking. The only problem with this promotion is that OneRemit has cut its 3% transaction fee, but you’ll still need to pay the government’s Intermediary Money Transfer Tax (IMTT) which was set at 4%. The IMTT for forex was announced last month by the President.

Government is, with immediate effect, putting in place a differential taxation system for the Intermediary Money Transfer Tax (IMTT) as follows:

(i) 2% would continue to apply to local currency transfers; and

(ii) All domestic foreign currency transfers to attract an Intermediary Money Transfer Tax (IMTT) of 4%

President’s speech (via The Sunday Mail)

At the bottom of the promotional material, OneMoney Remit said that it was cutting its 3% fee but that the 4% forex tax still stands…

We contacted OneMoney to clarify and we were told that this was indeed the case.

“Please note that the promotion will reward customers with zero charges when they send $10 US or more using OneMoney Remit on their 1st transaction from the date of launch. Zero charge for your 1st transaction take note, and the receiver collects at no cost. The 0% charge is applicable only to the 3% charged by OneMoney whilst the Government IMT tax remains at 4%”

OneMoney

This is an utter shame for OneMoney Remit because without any transaction fees it would have had a fighting chance at getting some of the market share from the likes of BancABC’s City Hopper, Mukuru and others. However, and on the other hand, it is a little cheaper because it would have 7% with the IMTT. Moreover, it will still be more affordable than all the other remittance services because they will most surely be charging the 4% IMTT on top of whatever fee they are charging for their domestic remittance services.

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EcoCash, Zimbabwe’s leading mobile money platform, has introduced additional security enhancements to its platform to beef up customer data privacy and strengthen the system’s security.

The measures announced by the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Munyaradzi Nhamo today, include protecting the customer’s identity by ensuring that when making merchant payments in shops or paying bills at any service providers, the EcoCash user’s mobile number is not visible on the printed or SMS receipts.

Mr Nhamo said the EcoCash security improvements would prevent unauthorised access to Ecocash customer numbers.

“The security enhancements will address the issue of possible misuse of EcoCash customer details and will also bring us to full PCI DSS compliance”

Munyaradzi Nhamo, Chief Operating Officer EcoCash

PCI DSS refers to the global Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a global data security standard adopted by organisations that, among other things, accept payment cards from the major global credit card firms, such as Visa and MasterCard.

Mr Nhamo said EcoCash would continue to enhance customer security, as well as the security of the fintech and payments ecosystem it operates in. He added

“We are committed to ensuring that we continuously improve the national payments ecosystem that we are a participant of,”

Munyaradzi Nhamo, Chief Operating Officer EcoCash

You should also check out

• EcoCash FCA wallet cash-in RETURNS. Is the informal market going to jump on?
• EcoCash enters USD money transfers with a domestic remittance service
• Zimbos were creating money on EcoCash, OneMoney and Telecash using blockchain tech – RBZ governor. And more revelations
• Ecocash Holdings Zimbabwe & Comviva win Silver in 2 categories at Emerging Payments Awards

The post EcoCash upgrades security, enhancing customer data protection & privacy appeared first on Techzim.

A couple of months ago EcoCash announced that it was entering the domestic remittance game as well as pushing the company’s FCA wallet. This was quite a surprise because the prevailing assumption was that EcoCash was in some sort of conflict with the regulators. However, as it turned out, this was not the case as representatives from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and the Exchange Control were in attendance as the country’s largest mobile money operator announced to the public its latest venture into forex. At the same event, EcoCash also revealed that it would be bringing back its Mastercard physical card to pair alongside the popular virtual card.

When we covered the launch event, we were told that the physical was not yet ready but would be coming soon. While browsing the internet recently, I saw an advertisement on EcoCash’s Facebook feed that announced that the physical FCA Mastercards were now available.

So to test EcoCash’s marketing, I went to my local shop to see if the card was indeed ready for customers. When I got there I was told that the physical card was available and I began the process of getting it…

A 2018 time capsule

This takes me back to 2018 when we reported on the return of the EcoCash Debit Card (and then proceeded to go away again). From that time the EcoCash debit card was not being issued by the mobile money operator. Reasons for this, I can not be too sure, however, we all experienced the banning of the USD as legal tender locally in 2019 as the govt made the push for the local currency. If I am to put money on anything being the primary reason then that would be it.

At any rate, the card is back and unfortunately, it’s much the same as it was way back when. You can’t use the card for online transactions. If you want to buy goods and services online you will have to generate an EcoCash Virtual MasterCard. This might miff a few of you but the use of a virtual card is probably one of the safest ways to transact online.

Chief among the security benefits of a virtual card is that it limits the amount of information that is shared when you are making a purchase. Virtual Cards tokenise and encrypt data, hiding your details (including your physical card details) and they can be used for one-time payments that you (for one reason or another) don’t want to linked to your physical card directly.

Additionally, EcoCash’s Virtual Mastercard is pretty handy if your cash flow is a problem and you are a fan of subscription services like Netflix and Spotify. The virtual version of the EcoCash Mastercard expires after two weeks, so essentially you are making a one-time payment for a subscription-based service and it saves you the headache of your bank charging you that predatory insufficient funds fee (BancABC prepaid Visa cardholders know what I am talking about) whenever Netflix or Spotify ping your account looking for money.

How to get the EcoCash Virtual Mastercard

• Dial *151# and enter EcoCash PIN
• Select Wallet Services
• Select EcoCash Debit Card
• Select EcoCash MasterCard Virtual
• Request VCN
• Enter a nickname for the card (any four-letter nickname)
• Enter 1 and submit your request
• You will receive an SMS with the virtual card number, card expiry date and the CVV2 number.

The only drawback is that you have to keep generating Virtual Cards which costs US$0.50 on EcoCash. This might be a small price to pay for those who are used to deleting payment details on their subscription service of choice regularly. Although, for those who don’t want the hassle of entering a payment option every time then a conventional prepaid USD card might be the way to go.

So what is the EcoCash physical Debit Mastercard good for anyway?

So you can’t use it for online payment, so what is this card good for? Before I try to answer that let’s look at how you acquire one.

First, you’ll need to go to your Econet Shop and request a card. You’ll then be asked to pay US$5.00 for acquiring the card and then load money into your EcoCash FCA Wallet. When that has been squared away, you’ll need to provide a national Identity document which is the only KYC you’ll do throughout the process.

After all that, you’ll be handed your card in an envelope with your pin obscured until you peel the tab to reveal it. And the EcoCash attendant will help you activate it through the *151# USSD menu.

• Dial *151#
• Select Option 7 (Wallet Services)
• Choose Option 1 (EcoCash Debit Card)
• Select Option 1 (EcoCash Mastercard Card Physical)
• Choose Option 1 (Activate)

After you have done that you will need to give your Mastercard a four-letter nickname that will be used for the card. The final step is to confirm the activation and should be all set. At the time of writing, I was having issues activating my card. The USSD was throwing errors at me every time I tried. I was told by EcoCash customer support that I’d need to return to the Econet shop to get the issue sorted out.

If you are intending on getting this card, don’t be a bonehead like me and leave before the card has been activated. Make sure they activate the card before you exit the Econet shop.

Circling back to the utility of this card, it is time to try and answer the question “what can this card can be used for if it can’t do online transactions?“. Well, the answer to that is pretty much what we wrote back in 2018, you can:

• International ATM withdrawal (getting cash from an ATM if someone has loaded your account or sent you money)
• International & Local POS transactions (swiping at the till, locally and aboard)
• Contactless Payments (the card is compatible with contactless Point of Sale Machines)

So essentially no different than what you can do with a regular card, except this one is from a mobile money operator and without the ability to do online transactions. This might be a deal-breaker for some who don’t want to continuously generate a VCN for online payments regardless of the benefits. Additionally, almost every bank has a prepaid VISA or Mastercard platform at a comparable cost to entry as EcoCash’s.

To make sense of this, I am going to need your help from your own experiences and use cases. Does EcoCash’s Mastercard make sense for you?

But while on the point EcoCash’s cards are chip and pin, unlike OneMoney and Telecash who as of last year were still issuing magstripe cards for their local currency cards.

P.S. I have enquired about the transaction charges for the EcoCash debit card and I have yet to get a response from customer support.

The post EcoCash physical Mastercard is back (again) & it still can’t do online payments appeared first on Techzim.

We have all been there, you are a little short on money and need someone to bail you out. It’s a little awkward when you have to ask someone for a handout but what can you do when the need arises?

So, you shoot your benefactor a text message or a quick call. Or if you are in a real bind, you resort to a call me back request. The person calls you, a back and forth ensues as you plead your case and they tell you they can spare a little. The benefactor then has to go to their mobile banking app or mobile money wallet and make it official.

What if that last part was tweaked? See, a request for money is also a request for a benefactor to leave whatever they are doing and fiddle around in some app, or worse still, deal with USSD and timeouts. What if the one asking for money was the one to do all the heavy lifting?

EcoCash now allows for that.

Request money

I’m not sure when this became a thing but you can now request for money yourself and all the benefactor has to do is input a PIN.

This now works just like merchant transactions work. You know how in supermarkets you don’t have to deal with USSD when you’re the one paying. The supermarket wants your money and does the heavy lifting. Granted, the request is now automated in those cases.

In your case, you have to do it manually and this is how you do it:

• Dial *151#

• Select Option 1: Send Money

• Then Option 3: Request Money

• Then Option1: Create Request

• Enter Amount

• Enter your benefactor’s number and reference

Your benefactor gets a prompt to approve the transaction. It is just like the prompt one gets when they want to pay a merchant. If the benefactor recognises the name and amount, they input their PIN and that’s that.

If the benefactor misses the prompt, a text message follows with the information. They can then use the short code *151*1*6*3# to get straight to all pending transactions.

At any point you can go to the Request Money menu and view your Initiated Requests and Received Request. Or just to make another request.

Neat feature

It’s a neat little feature despite EcoCash’s cringe ad stereotyping the young girl asking for money from her ‘Bae.’

EcoCash Ad says: ‘A new way to ask Bae for money’ and shows a young lady smiling whilst on her phone, asking her bae/blesser for money I presume.

Not to say the stereotype isn’t true, just that you wouldn’t expect EcoCash to ride on it. In this age of Only Fans and Insta Modelling, why should EcoCash promote the bae/blesser dynamic? Turns out not all were impressed with this ad campaign and they let EcoCash know on social media.

One other issue raised was that this feature could become a nuisance if abused. Imagine getting these requests every other minute. I can see why it might be good idea to give people the option to opt out of receiving money requests. Or at the very least to block certain numbers.

To be frank though, this is not an EcoCash problem. If your contacts abuse something that would be useful for others, that’s on you and your phone number disbursement policy. Should we also get rid of ‘call me backs’ because someone’s sugarbaby abuses it? I think not.

So, go ahead and make life easier for those you beg from. Use EcoCash’s Request Money feature today.

You should also read:

EcoCash FCA wallet cash-in RETURNS. Is the informal market going to jump on?

EcoCash upgrades security, enhancing customer data protection & privacy

The post EcoCash makes it easier to ask for money from friends and family, markets it terribly appeared first on Techzim.

EcoCash has announced that it has partnered with PayPal for users in Zimbabwe to receive international remittances through its existing partnership with global cross-border remittance giant Thunes.

“Leveraging our Hub partnership with Thunes, we are excited to add Xoom, a PayPal money transfer service, to our growing number of remittance partners to Zimbabwe,” .

EcoCash spokesperson

The name Thunes is one we have heard before from EcoCash’s sister company Steward Bank, which late last year announced that it had added it to its network of remittance partners. If that arrangement has bled into this one is something we cannot be sure of, but one can wonder.

At any rate, this means any Zimbabweans in the diaspora with a PayPal account will now be able to send funds directly to the EcoCash USD wallet.

“Anyone with a PayPal account can now simply logon to the Pay Pal Xoom service, using their PayPal credentials, and be able to instantly send money to their family or friends on EcoCash USD wallet from wherever they are around the world,”

EcoCash Spokesperson

For those in the diaspora, Xoom charges US$9.99 for transactions up to US$599 and US$12.99 for transactions above that if it’s for cash pick up. There is also a mobile money fee, which on the Xoom fee calculator, stays at US$5.99 even up to US$1,000.

You should also read

• EcoCash makes it easier to ask for money from friends and family, markets it terribly
• The EcoCash physical Mastercard is back (again) & it still can’t do online payments
• EcoCash upgrades security, enhancing customer data protection & privacy
• EcoCash enters USD money transfers with a domestic remittance service

The post You can now receive PayPal transfers directly into an EcoCash USD wallet appeared first on Techzim.

Zimbabwe’s biggest mobile money service EcoCash has introduced a Bill Manager, a new service that it says will bring more convenience for its users and simplifies how EcoCash customers manage their bill payments to different service providers, directly from their phones. 

EcoCash has brought about a number of things over the years that have been hit or miss. The one thing they were slacking on was a way to make bill payments a lot easier. We are all using EcoCash for one thing or another even with the charges… But the USSD was super friction-filled when it came to making payments.

One would imagine that the guys running the country’s biggest mobile money operator would invest more time into improving the user experience ages ago.

This is actually pretty cool

You can access EcoCash Bill Manager by dialling *151*100# on any type of phone. The new feature will allow EcoCash customers to make real-time, multicurrency (ZWL or USD) bill payments and allow for (and this is the best part) automatic monthly bill payments.

“They will also be able to set recurring bill payments for auto-collection by the service or utility providers, straight from their mobile wallets, on a monthly basis.

EcoCash Chief Operating Officer Mr Munyaradzi Nhamo

All you’ll need to do is authorize the payment; EcoCash says the Bill Manager will automatically fetch the bill from the service provider and show it to the customer for payment authorization. You can do this through the aforementioned *151*100# USSD which will allow you to make your bill payments like the conventional USSD.

You can then save your “Favourite transactions” (Option 3 on the *151*100# USSD) from some of the billers on the EcoCash Bill Manager which include ZESA prepaid tokens, Harare City Council,  Edgars, ZINWA prepaid tokens, Liquid Home (ZOL), First Mutual Health, Jet Store, Bulawayo City, Council, Econet post-paid, PowerLive, Celfre Energy, CIMAS, Doves, Nyaradzo, Fidelity Life Assurance and FBC Microplan Services, among others. 

“EcoCash Bill Manager puts the power into the customer’s hands. They will have the convenience and flexibility to make one-time payments, or to automatically schedule mandates for recurring payments to their utility or service provider,”

EcoCash Chief Operating Officer Mr Munyaradzi Nhamo

Additionally, EcoCash says customers that use the EcoCash Bill Manager online (via the link here) will get an instant email notification, with proof of payment, once they pay their bills. They will also be able to access and download EcoCash statements on demand.

What do you think about this?

I think this is a step in the right direction from EcoCash. The one thing I’d like to see is this feature put on the mobile money operator’s application. This would make it a whole lot easier for those who aren’t fans of USSD.

That being said, starting with USSD is probably the smart thing to do. Many Zimbabweans are using feature phones and prioritising the app would have excluded a lot of their customers.

Anyway, let me know what you think about this EcoCash feature in the comments below.

The post EcoCash automatic bill payments, they have finally done something really cool appeared first on Techzim.

We have had EcoCash for what seems like an eternity now. As it has matured we have come to expect less and less in the way of innovations. That’s exactly what we expect to see when it comes to services and products we have been using for over a decade.

We are so used to how EcoCash works we don’t want to wake up to ‘innovations’ that may change the status quo. There comes a time when control over a product/service’s future is wrestled from the creator and transferred to the users. That happened a while ago in mobile money, and for EcoCash especially.

As a result, the only innovations we crave are reliability improvements. Improve up-time and we are happy campers.

That said, I am reminded of Henry Ford saying if he had asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for faster horses. The automobile would never have been. This to say we don’t think we need innovations until they arrive and we can’t imagine how we used to live without them.

How we use EcoCash

We know how to use EcoCash. It’s either we’re fiddling with USSD menus (*151#) that require our complete attention and the speed of a professional gamer. Get distracted for a second and you’re timed out and forced to start over.

If that’s not your cup of maheu, you can always use the EcoCash or Sasai apps. For some reason, they don’t quite work for me reliably and so USSD has been my go to.

If we have any challenges with the service we know what to do. There are toll free numbers we can call, social media pages we can harass and WhatsApp customer service numbers we can use. However, with us being in the millions the reality is that we often have to wait a little bit to be served.

What if chatbots came into the picture though? And what if that chatbot was on our favoured WhatsApp?

EcoCash Assistant

EcoCash has been readying a WhatsApp chatbot and you may have even helped pick out a character from the 2 that were on offer. Apparently ya’ll went with Thembie and that is the new EcoCash Smart Assistant.

To use the new assistant all you need is to have access to WhatsApp, which you have more often than not. The data is clear, WhatsApp is the internet in Zimbabwe and taking EcoCash to WhatsApp should be thought of as EcoCash finally being available on the internet.

Say Hi to Thembie, your EcoCash Smart Assistant on WhatsApp/Telegram 0777222150, to get assistance on all your EcoCash issues from the comfort of your home.

EcoCash

Simply save that number and then start a chat in WhatsApp.

Here’s what you’re able to do with Thembie:

Merchant Payment.
Bill Payment.
Airtime Purchase – Bundles and USD airtime will be added soon.
Send Money.
Send Money Reversal.
ZESA Token Purchase.
Banking Services.
PIN RESET.
Statement Request.
Balance Enquiry.

That’s quite the list and I’d imagine for many of us, once bundles and USD airtime are added, we won’t want for anything else. Do note, if Telegram is more your thing you’ll get the same experience there. However, it appears that will happen later, right now Telegram says Thembie is not on the platform yet.

Some of what you cannot do includes Cash Out, Debit Card, Kashagi and Savings Club and Ecocash diaspora stuff. I can live with that.

Thembie is easy to use

Props to EcoCash for the good implementation. Using the new assistant should be straightforward for everyone who has used WhatsApp before.

Thembie first verifies your identity and that involves sending a verification code via SMS to your EcoCash number. You then have to input your EcoCash PIN and you’ll be glad to know that you won’t actually type in the PIN in the chat. Rather you get a popup prompt like the one you get in a supermarket.

Then come the security questions. You know how it goes, you tell Thembie your favourite cousin, sport etc to be used to verify you’re you when you forget your PIN later. These you have to type in so I’d suggest deleting the answers after you’re done.

After that you’re free to do whatever you want. You just tell Thembie what you want to do by typing in any of the keywords above e.g. Send Money or Banking Services and it all happens via WhatsApp, the PIN prompt being the only USSD input you will deal with.

I purposefully mistyped some words and for the most part, Thembie knew what I was talking about. Even shorthand like ‘snd’ for send works. You don’t have to type in Bill Payment like a chump, just say ‘bill’ and you’ll be good to go.

In all this you don’t have to worry about timing out. You can take your sweet time responding and Thembie won’t force you to start over like her temperamental brother, USSD.

What do you think?

I don’t think I’m ever going to faff around with USSD menus again, of course WhatsApp bundle permitting. Seeing as we’re all almost always on WhatsApp, I think this is the best way to transact on EcoCash if the app doesn’t work for you.

However neat I think the transaction functionality is, it is secondary. After all, there are many ways to kill that cat. Thembie really is about customer service.

Customer service

As regards customer service, normally, chatbots are not my thing. I’m a pro-Googler and by the time I need help from customer service, it’s usually a tricky little issue that chatbots cannot help with. That said, making a typo and sending money to the wrong person can happen to anyone.

Talk to customer support teams and they will tell you that they get questions about the most basic of problems more than anything else. We all make silly little makes from time to time.

Problem is, in many cases we don’t bother trying to resolve the issue ourselves. We call the customer support team even when, for example, we could have done a PIN reset ourselves in a few seconds.

In fact, EcoCash says PIN resets, send money reversals and statement requests account for more than 90% of customer support queries.

For some reason we prefer calling customer care about PIN resets and statement requests when it would be quicker to do that ourselves. Maybe USSD with its timeouts is too much of a hassle and that’s why we don’t use it to resolve those issues.

So, we all turn to customer support, in our millions, and the experience becomes terrible for all involved. The common cry in Zimbabwe is that customer service sucks. It does. We clog the lines with the same issues.

Self service

Thembie is actually meant to ease this load, allowing customers to resolve their issues themselves, with her help of course. WhatsApp could be just what the doctor ordered.

So, if the chatbot helps people with that, that will free up the customer service personnel to deal with the more challenging issues. We all win. We have all complained about terrible customer service and if Thembie eases the load on the overwhelmed support team I’d be ecstatic.

Try out the EcoCash chatbot yourself and see what’s what.

Related:

Innovative clinic uses WhatsApp chatbot to serve and screen patients

EcoCash Distances Self From Fake Customer Service Number

Hotbox the WhatsApp chatbot that replaced Duta is now at 300K users

Nyaradzo’s chatbot Sahwi is now available on WhatsApp

The post New EcoCash Assistant on WhatsApp allows you to transact and resolve common issues, simple but could be great appeared first on Techzim.

You know the drill. Inflation is roaring and prices appear to be changing every day. Couple that with transaction limits on our preferred payment platforms and you can find yourself unable to pay for stuff, even when you have the money.

Yesterday, it was Zipit raising its limits, today it is EcoCash’s turn. EcoCash has been sending out the following text:

Send Money ZW$50k/transaction up to ZW$280,000/month or per day. Merchant & Bill Pay is ZW$100k/transaction up to ZW$400,000/month or per day.

Sending money to a friend? You can now send up to a maximum of ZW$50,000 per transaction. 

The monthly limit is now ZW$280,000 but you can spend it all in one day, however you will have to transact multiple times because remember, a single transaction cannot exceed ZW$50,000.

If you’re paying for stuff, the maximum on merchant/ bill payments is now ZW$100,000 per transaction. You can only have four such transactions a month as the monthly limit is only ZW$400,000. Same as for Zipit.

Are these even increases?

The black market is fast approaching 1:1000 and here we are limiting people to ZW$400,000 per month. Using the black market rate, we are limiting people to less than US$450 per month. Even if we use the bank rate, that is only US$880. 

One could argue that the average Zimbabwean does not make, let alone spend that much in a month. I imagine that’s how the regulators came up with that figure. 

However, we have to remember that the high unemployment rate in this country has necessitated that everyone become an entrepreneur. People are trying to use these accounts/wallets to run their small informal businesses. 

Are we to expect businesses to run with a cap of US$450. We recently found out that 64% of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in this country do not have bank accounts. So, services like EcoCash are essential.

But with a cap of US$450 on bill/ merchant payments, is it any wonder then that the informal economy has largely moved on from the formal financial sector. 

Also read:

Zimswitch raises Zipit limits

The post EcoCash transaction limits revised upwards, still low appeared first on Techzim.

InnBucks rocked the nation when it launched late last year. Marketed as a loyalty and rewards programme, the service was hijacked by the public and made a domestic remittance platform. With only a 2% charge, which was the IMT Tax, the service was free and we warmed to it pretty quickly.

The extensive branch network the Simbisa service boasted was impressive. They had 234 outlets and 92 more outlets were set to be added in 2022.

As they flew high, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had to step in and halt that progress. InnBucks was banned on the 20th of April 2022. Apparently there were issues with their ADLA licence. The RBZ said they didn’t have the necessary approvals to operate a transfer service.

InnBucks said they would work with the regulator to quickly resolve the issue. It looks like progress has been made in that endeavour. It took longer than we all expected, it’s almost 4 months since the ban.

InnBucks broke the silence on twitter.

In the video, they say, “August 2022. We’re coming back. Bigger. Better. Stronger

Their comeback looks to be imminent.

What’s happened while they were gone?

This is Zimbabwe and 4 months is a long time in this land of the overnight Statutory Instrument. Just a few weeks after InnBucks’ ban the government increased IMT Tax from 2% to 4% for all forex transfers.

So, InnBucks will be twice as expensive to use. However, if they remain aggressive with their own charges, they should still be one of the cheaper options.

The other thing that happened while InnBucks was incapacitated was the emergence of new competition.

In the whole time InnBucks conquered the domestic remittance space, EcoCash was hobbled. In the days leading to InnBucks’ ban, EcoCash reentered the forex remittance space. We salivated at the thought of competition heating up and we finally get to see how that brawl will pan out.

EcoCash FCA is now expensive to use and InnBucks could yet overtake the once formidable opponent. There might not be a brawl after all.

The other new competition comes in the form of banks. CBZ and POSB both entered this domestic remittance space and they are aggressive with their fees. POSB is especially aggressive with their 1.5% charge.

The other players that were around during InnBucks’ first stint are still here too. Access Forex just partnered with Senditoo, Mukuru is going nowhere, City Hopper is still at it and NBS InstaCash lives on.

OneMoney has been aggressive too, charging users 0% on the first transaction and 3% after that. The 4% IMTT is paid in both cases though.

It’s going to be a bloody fight and by the end we will have witnessed at least one player hit the deck.

Welcome back InnBucks, make this fight a good one.

Also read:

4% forex tax & withdrawal levy: Forever banishing the idea of banking USD

Remittance service Senditoo partners Access Forex, comes back from brink of destruction

The post InnBucks set to make a comeback to a changed domestic remittance landscape appeared first on Techzim.

EcoCash has been in the domestic remittance game for a while now. In the service’s over a decade life, competition has never been stiffer. What was once the no-brainer choice is now just one of many options.

The regulators saw to that. As we speak, using EcoCash in the way we used to is not advisable if you’re sending USD. You may have experienced this, the charges are excessive if you cash in, send money and cash out using EcoCash FCA wallets.

Here’s how you’re charged for that:

• Cash in – 4% IMTT
• Send money – 4% IMTT (plus EcoCash’s cut)
• Cash out – another 4% (plus EcoCash’s cut)

Do you see that? You are charged 4% Intermediated Money Transfer Tax at every step. It’s ridiculous that you have to pay to deposit USD into your EcoCash FCA wallet.

I tested this myself? I deposited $150 into my wallet and this is how it went.

• Cash in $155 and New balance = $148.8 [Tax of $6.20 charged]
• Send money – $141, New Balance = $0.2 [Tax of $5.95 and EcoCash fee of $1.65 charged]
• Cash out – $137 [Tax/Cash out fee of $3.04] which is not quite 4%

Screenshot showing the 4% IMTT collected on a cash in transaction.

Kind of tax is this?

This kind of taxing is meant to stop you using the service. How can each step in the transaction process be treated as a stand alone transaction?

EcoCash consulted with the regulators and it was revealed that this is how they are supposed to charge the 4% tax on EcoCash transactions. You are probably thinking, ‘how come no one else is charging the 4% this way?’ That’s the million dollar question.

We reached out to OneMoney to find out how they are doing it thinking maybe it only applied to mobile money operators. That’s not how they are doing it. They only charge the 4% when one sends money. There is no 4% tax when cashing in or cashing out.

I didn’t test this myself but that’s what they say.

So for some reason , only EcoCash is charging the 4% tax the excessive way. Off the bat, we can rule out EcoCash collecting these charges for themselves and lying that they are taxes. There really is no upside to them doing this.

EcoCash would not intentionally make their service the most expensive. They are losing market share because of this. Besides, the regulators keep an eagle eye on EcoCash transactions and there is no way they could get away with it.

So, the question remains, ‘why only EcoCash?’

The smart way to use EcoCash – the voucher

The charges above are atrocious. My recipient only received 88% of the $155 I deposited. So, taxes plus EcoCash charges reached an ungodly 12%. Let’s come right out and say it, until something changes DO NOT cash in USD into an EcoCash wallet.

There is a way to still use EcoCash that doesn’t result in 12% charges though. If you use EcoCash vouchers you won’t be charged the 4% IMTT multiple times. It becomes a straightforward affair.

The Voucher works like those other remittance products.

You just walk into an Econet shop, provide the cashier with your ID, the money to be sent and the recipient’s name. A voucher number is generated and sent to the recipient. The recipient uses the voucher number to collect the funds.

The charges? There is no cash in or cash out charge. EcoCash charges 3% and the government gets its 4% for a total of 7%.

This compares favourably to the other remittance services in the market. We looked at how InnBucks is coming in hot, charging only 1% to transfer and 2% to cash out.

Sending $150 using EcoCash vouchers works out to $10.50 in charges. Using InnBucks the charges reach $10.35. The 15 cent difference is not significant enough to choose one over the other. It will come down to which service has a shop/outlet near you.

The collection point

InnBucks comes in boasting over 260 locations across the country.

EcoCash used to have merchants in the thousands but that was a while ago. When it comes to vouchers, you can only transact from Econet shops and there are fewer of those than there are merchants. They should be in the hundreds though. We will update this with the actual figure when we get it.

I tried using the EcoCash vouchers once and the shop at my recipient’s location said they could not release cash if we used the voucher method. They instead advised us to use the expensive cash in/cash out method. We reached out to EcoCash on what that was all about and they are looking into it.

I have heard some complain that the collection process can be slow at InnBucks locations because one has to queue up with those looking to grab food at the Simbisa outlets InnBucks uses.

Anyway, that’s just a quick comparison between EcoCash and InnBucks. We shall compare all the domestic remittance solutions in the market. That should be fun.

Also read:

InnBucks is back as a bank, is it still as low cost as it was before?

The post If you’re sending USD don’t cash into EcoCash, use the vouchers instead appeared first on Techzim.

The domestic remittance playing field has been leveled. The regulations that only applied to EcoCash have been repealed.

Earlier this week we talked about how crazy it was that only EcoCash had to collect 4% tax on cash-ins and cash-outs. The bizarre scenario meant we were paying close to 12% of the transaction amount to the government every time we sent money on EcoCash.

That made EcoCash much more expensive than the competition. It was especially noticeable when the fan favourite InnBucks relaunched and didn’t have to collect the 4% tax that crazy way.

Fortunately, the regulators have found it within their hearts to change that. EcoCash will now only have to collect 4% IMT Tax when money is sent. Cashing in is now free and cashing out now only carries a 1.7% charge.

New EcoCash tariffs

This means when you send money to a recipient who then cashes out, the total you pay in charges and taxes is 7%. This is exactly what you pay when using InnBucks, 7%. Meaning between these two, the only consideration is which one has an outlet closest to you.

The difference is that InnBucks charges 1% to send and 2% to cash out. Whilst EcoCash does a 1.3/1.7% split. In either case, there’s no sugarcoating it – sending USD using formal channels is expensive. The government’s 4% cut is just too high.

The government makes more from these transactions than the service providers. I do not know how you define excessive taxation but I think we can agree that this is a ridiculous situation.

It is intentional. They said the 4% is meant to discourage the use of the USD and promote the use of the ZWD.

The tax has done nothing of the sort and it never will. When they announced this we all thought, oh silly regulator, that won’t work. Now, I’m starting to think, that was just a diversion story, it was all about increasing tax.

The vouchers still exist

EcoCash introduced vouchers through which users could avoid paying the excessive IMTT situation discussed above. If you use the vouchers you will still pay 7% in charges and taxes.

So, the advice we gave earlier is no longer solid. Vouchers are no longer a better option.

I don’t know how the vouchers are going to catch on, now that regular old EcoCash costs the same.

See, I don’t imagine even EcoCash was ecstatic about introducing the voucher. They already had a service that customers were familiar with.

Why would they want to confuse people with a new remittance product that did the same thing? When people hear the name ‘EcoCash’ there is a certain image that comes to mind and it involves cashing in and out.

The tax situation forced their hand and they had to push the voucher. Judging from my circles, people had not gotten their heads around the vouchers. It doesn’t matter now. The message now is that EcoCash FCA is a solid option in the USD remittance game again.

Also read:

4% forex tax & withdrawal levy: Forever banishing the idea of banking USD

If you’re sending USD don’t cash into EcoCash, use the vouchers instead

InnBucks is back as a bank, is it still as low cost as it was before?

The post EcoCash FCA now cheaper to use, no more cash in/cash out taxes appeared first on Techzim.

You have heard the news, you can now pay straight from your OneMoney mobile money wallet via Point of Sale. This means wherever you find a POS machine you don’t have to ask if they accept OneMoney, they do now.

Zimswitch allows for this. The market leader, EcoCash, does not have this kind of integration. Maybe some day these two will learn to play nicely with each other.

In the backend this arrangement works out well for the merchant as well. When a customer pays using OneMoney like this, the money goes straight to their bank account.

This is a plus now because of the restrictions that were placed on mobile money accounts. Merchants cannot transact much using their mobile money accounts, they have to transfer that money to their bank accounts first.

NetOne on their part do not have to sign up merchants on OneMoney. If they have a bank account, they can accept payments from OneMoney users.

So, the OneMoney from any POS feature is a win-win-win-win for customers, merchants, the mobile money service provider and Zimswitch. Case closed. Or is it?

How much marketshare does OneMoney have?

We don’t know but if we can go by the last reports we got, EcoCash had market share in the mid 90 percents. We can assume OneMoney has made some inroads in the past few years, especially considering the regulatory challenges EcoCash faced for a time.

That said, I imagine EcoCash still has the lion’s share of the market. Meaning this new OneMoney on any POS feature will be used by only a few people.

OneMoney has millions of users now but those figures can be misleading. All mobile money subscriber stats are misleading because these mobile network operators now sign up people for mobile money services when they register their new SIM cards.

Often times people have no intention of using said mobile money accounts. This is especially a problem because most Zimbabweans have multiple SIM cards. There are many who only have Econet lines so they can use EcoCash. These same people will be counted among OneMoney subscribers even when they never use the service.

So, again, the new feature is neat but how many will actually make use of it?

There is also the reality that EcoCash users won’t really feel like they are missing out on anything. EcoCash is already widely accepted in the market that few know or care that EcoCash actually has to sign up merchants individually.

Even those who do not have the nifty EcoCash integration that only seeks the PIN from the user when making payment, those merchants almost always accept EcoCash via the Send Money option.

Cash first society

We can talk about market share all we want but that’s not the main challenge facing OneMoney. Even if they are gaining on EcoCash on market share or even active users, they are getting a bigger piece of a shrinking cake.

Zimbabwe is moving away from electronic money. Yes, when it comes to the ZW$ there isn’t enough cash to go around and we are forced to transact electronically. However, when it comes to the USD, our preferred currency, it is a cash economy.

We have seen even NetOne and Econet try to push people to buy more USD airtime by limiting the amount of ZW$ airtime they sell.

Every single Zimbabwean prefers the USD and as we use that currency more and more, it won’t matter much who has ZW$ mobile money transfers on lock.

It may be premature to talk about electronic ZW$ transactions not being worth it and so it is okay for OneMoney and Zimswitch to innovate. However, if current trends hold, it does look like we won’t be using the feature much.

The news seems trivial when you ask yourself, who is actually hearing this and thinking, ‘man, this solves my biggest problem.’ I don’t think there are many people out there thinking that. We are spoilt for choice when it comes to electronic payment methods and have had our go-tos for a while.

Where we have a real challenge is on how to pay for stuff using USD. Right now merchants have settled on ‘cash on delivery.’ It’s not pretty but when you have to deliver physical goods, you at least have to meet the buyer in person anyways.

Digital goods are a whole different matter. Merchants can easily deliver the goods but collecting payment is the challenge. Mostly because the government insists on collecting 4% on every USD transfer made.

Good to see

It’s not fair to levy this on OneMoney. Zimswitch on the other hand… Being the national switch, we can really expect them to bring innovation where it’s sorely needed.

That said, the OneMoney from any POS feature is still neat. It just happens that it’s not really solving any burning problem for the majority. We still love it though.

Also read:

Govt’s 4% forex tax spoils OneMoney Remit’s 0% fee promotion

Innbucks’ growth shows OneMoney could miss yet another opportunity

POSB launches loans available only to OneMoney customers

The post You can pay using OneMoney from any POS now, is this a game changer? appeared first on Techzim.

If you are a parent or a guardian you are going to love EcoCash’s new product. EcoCash launched the EcoCash Junior wallet today. This new product is aimed towards children aged 9-18. But worry not, as a guardian you will have control over the wallet.

The thinking behind the Junior wallet is that parents give their children money for various reasons. Problem is they usually can’t see for themselves what that money is actually used for, especially when it is cash.

With the EcoCash Junior wallet that all changes. You will be able to see your child’s account statements and be certain of exactly what they spent the money on.

Of course, there isn’t much that can be done when it is a peer to peer transfer. You can ask questions but you cannot know why they sent $10 to another kid called Chief. Was it for drugs, was it to avoid a beating? You may never know. However, you at least have a number to work with.

You will have to contend with charges and taxes though. This is one are where cash still wins out. However, in the grand scheme of things, being able to track how your kid actually spends her money might be more important than saving a little in charges.

Sorry, let me not say a little. If the government still wants its 4% and EcoCash gets it’s 4% for USD transfers that’s not an insignificant amount. We will confirm what the tariff table will look like. I imagine it will be the same as the big boys’.

That’s the way of life though, isn’t it? Life, death, charges, commissions and taxes.

Econet launches Junior wallet

EcoCash has launched a mobile wallet for children between 9 and 18 years of age.

EcoCash Holdings chief executive officer Mr Eddie Chibi said only parents and guardians are allowed to register and fund the ‘EcoCash Junior Wallet’ on behalf of children from their wallets. “This way, parents have control of re-setting pins and keep track of transactions made by the child”, he said.

“The idea is to enable children to take charge of their own pocket money and savings with the help of their parents and, in the process, nurture in them financial stewardship and discipline at an early age,” Mr Chibi said at the launch of the new service in Harare.

EcoCash is already compliant with privacy-protection laws related to children and minors, and with general data-protection regulations. These certifications ensure children and adults can safely and securely participate in the digital economy.

Mr Chibi said with the EcoCash Junior Wallet, teens and younger children can use the wallet to purchase goods online and in-store, buy airtime, as well as conduct peer-to-peer transfers. The wallet can be funded with either  Zimbabwe dollars or  United States dollars through cash-in, peer to peer transfers or via bank to wallet transfers from the guardian/parent, all aimed at creating convenience and helping children develop financial literacy.

EcoCash chief operating officer Munyaradzi Nhamo said Junior Wallet transaction limits for payments are ZW$35,000 per/day and ZW$240,000 per month, and up to US$175/day and US$700/month on the USD  wallet.

Mr Nhamo added that EcoCash was using the child-focused payment platform, a less risky way of giving children money compared to cash, to promote financial inclusion, financial literacy and accountability among children.

“Our aim is to meet the needs of young digital natives who are inclined towards a cash free world,” he said.

“We believe children should be taught financial education at an early age. This can empower them to learn skills that can have a positive impact on their lives. The current global trends, as well as the pandemic and its impact on families, has highlighted the need for personal financial skills.”

The launch of the  Junior wallet comes at a time when various studies have revealed that teaching financial skills to  children before they enter college, or join the workforce, is crucial to helping them grow into adults who can achieve financial security and success.

To register for the EcoCash Junior Wallet, parents or guardians need to dial *151# (for ZWL wallet) or *153# (for USD wallet), select option 5 – Junior Wallet, then enter child information, including first name, last name, date of birth, identification number and phone number.

They then confirm registration details, and the child will be activated.

However, parents will still be required to attach the KYC documents of the child on a web portal, accessible on https://selfcare.ecocash.co.zw for the account to remain active.

Also read:

EcoCash FCA now cheaper to use, no more cash in/cash out taxes

New EcoCash Assistant on WhatsApp allows you to transact and resolve common issues, simple but could be great

EcoCash transaction limits revised upwards, still low

The post EcoCash Junior wallet for 9-18 year olds is excellent, it was long overdue appeared first on Techzim.

In Zimbabwe Coke refers either to all fizzy drinks or just to a particular soft drink. The same goes for EcoCash and mobile money. There is competition in the mobile money sector but for most, EcoCash is synonymous with mobile money.

We are all aware that that dominance ended up being a curse for EcoCash. The government vowed to clip their wings and you could say they managed to clip those wings a bit.

Watching that whole episode makes one understand why Google does not want you saying you ‘Googled’ something. They want you to say you searched for it.

Being synonymous with ‘search’ hurts the argument that they are not a monopoly. EcoCash should have been equally worried about people saying ‘I’ll EcoCash you the money.’

EcoCash bleeding subscribers

The results of the government’s efforts to clip EcoCash’s wings can be seen in EcoCash’s customer counts. As reported by EcoCash themselves, this was the subscriber movement from 2020.

• 2020 – 10.8 million
• 2021 – 8.4 million
• 2022 – 7.7 million

This means EcoCash has lost 3.1 million subscribers (29%) since 2020. That’s 700,000 lost from 2021 to 2022. Which is a lot.

We should remember though that these figures are for registered customers, not necessarily active customers.

We know that EcoCash had 6.8 million active customers in December 2019 according to Potraz, just 2 months before the reported 10.8 million above. The absolute numbers may be lower but the percentage drops should be similar.

Some of the reasons for this loss of customers are; the directive to limit individuals to just one account, the regulator-assisted collapse of the agent network, low upper limits placed on mobile money transactions, the collapse of the ZW$ and the resultant move to USD cash by the public, the emergence of competition in what was EcoCash’s stronghold – remittances.

Most of the reasons above stemmed from the regulators’ actions. However, we cannot rule out that EcoCash itself could have done better.

To remember though is that the loss of customers does not necessarily mean a drop in transactions. In fact, EcoCash transactions accounted for 81% of all national payment systems transaction volumes, up from 80% in 2021.

However, in terms of values there was a drop from 8% to 6% of national payment systems values. Indicating that the transaction limits imposed by the government led to smaller but more frequent transactions.

Can EcoCash reverse the trend?

EcoCash really has to be proactive and innovative to stem the tide. Their chances of getting some of the adverse regulations overturned are slim to none.

One mobile money account per individual is here to stay. The government would rather outlaw mobile money outright than let EcoCash build out its old and extensive agent network. Transaction limits are likely par of the course going forward.

The collapse of the ZW$ has been a huge challenge too. This has been coupled with an acute shortage of the ZWD in the market and the result has been rapid dollarisation. In the USD world, services like EcoCash’s are not essential. Cash is king in that world.

That may be but the reality is that the USD still has to exchange hands and it gets really inconvenient to have to do that in person every time like dealing in cash necessitates. So, the demand for USD remittance grew as USD use increased.

While EcoCash licked its wounds after a lengthy sparring session with the regulator, competition sprang up and took a piece of the USD domestic remittance pie. Such that when EcoCash re-entered the space, they felt like just one of many competitors, no longer the obvious choice like they were in the past.

We can blame the government for the collapse of the ZWD but that doesn’t explain how EcoCash lost some ground in the remittance space. Yes, EcoCash was unfairly targeted at times and they were distracted, trying to fight for survival but still.

Now they have to fight off the competition and the government that slapped a high 4% tax on those USD remittances.

Catch them young

The reality is that EcoCash has been close to saturating the market for years. Even after losing 3.1 million subscribers since 2020, they still have 92% of the adult population. Getting back the 3.1 million from that demographic is nigh impossible at this moment.

So, EcoCash is looking to the youth. Exactly a month ago they launched the EcoCash Junior wallet, a mobile wallet for children between 9 and 18 years of age.

This should get them a few new customers. After all, Zimbabwe has a young core, with our median age being around 18 it makes sense to target the young ones. Time will tell just how clever an idea Junior wallet was.

How has your EcoCash use changed?

Most of us used EcoCash extensively at some point. Many of us don’t use it like that anymore. Apparently, 3.1 million of us actually closed our accounts. What changed? For those that stuck around, how has your usage changed? Do let us know in the comments below.

Also read:

EcoCash Junior wallet for 9-18 year olds is excellent, it was long overdue

EcoCash FCA now cheaper to use, no more cash in/cash out taxes

The post EcoCash has lost 3.1 million customers since 2020, what or who is to blame? appeared first on Techzim.

There are bands that have names like Afrika Revenge, U2 etc. Then there are bands that go with the lead singer’s name e.g. Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited. This second type of band name looks to capitalise on the fame of the frontman who made a name before assembling the band. Then there are some that go with just the frontman’s name even though they are a band like EcoCash Holdings.

When EcoCash the mobile money service provider split up with Econet in 2018, they became part of Cassava, which was listed separately on the ZSE. Less than 3 years later the band name was changed from Cassava to EcoCash Holdings “to avoid confusion and to align the name of the company with the company’s main operating subsidiary.”

Yes, it’s less confusing to have EcoCash (Pvt Ltd) be a subsidiary of EcoCash (Holdings).

One wonders how attractive the supporting cast would be if EcoCash were not bundled with them. Remember EcoCash Holding’s portfolio comprises Fintech, Insurtech, On-Demand Services, e-Commerce, Agritech, Healthtech, Edutech, Steward Bank and VAYA Services. Let us look at how the group performed in the year ending February 2022.

EcoCash

“The Fintech businesses remained the largest contributor to revenue, at 80% (2021: 77%).” By Fintech businesses they mean EcoCash and Steward Bank.

This has been the case from the very beginning. In 2020 EcoCash alone accounted for 75% of group revenues. That was down to 60% in 2021. It looks likes that was down to around 55% in 2022.

Could it be that the supporting cast is growing into its own and contributing more to group revenues, reducing the group’s reliance on EcoCash? Not really. It is because EcoCash has been facing its own challenges in the last few years.

• They lost 3.1 million customers in 3 years, and the high-value money traders at that. In 2022 alone they lost 700,000.
• Merchants transacting every month fell from 47,002 in 2021 to 33,557 in 2022. Probably because of a combination of dollarisation and the RBZ’s directive that stopped direct transactions from the merchant wallet.
• In 2021, EcoCash’s revenues were down 40% but look to have rebounded in 2022 but only by around 24% by my calculations.
• International remittances have not been growing, the value of remittances received on the platform was US$7.4m in 2021 and US$7.5m in 2022.

When we talked about them losing 3.1 million customers we touched on the regulatory challenges that have stunted their growth and those include transaction limits, the decimation of the agent network, regulated tariffs, limits on the number of accounts per individual, ZW$ collapse and new competition entering the fray.

With the darling of the group somewhat struggling, how has the supporting cast fared?

Steward Bank

The bank had a good year. Profit before tax was up 235% thanks to a 139% increase in net interest income (from lending activities) and a 25% increase in non-funded income (charges, fees and commissions).

The interest income increase came partly from 322,924 new people accessing Kashagi loans worth ZW$1 billion and ZW$937 million worth of SME loans.

It’s refreshing to see interest income grow faster than charges and commissions. However, non-funded income is still around 70% of net operating income. That sounds high but a few years back charges and fees breached over 90% for some banks.

The net operating income of $7.51 billion represents around 25% of EcoCash Holdings revenues.

As if the increases in revenue weren’t enough, operating expenditure was actually down. 50% of the drop was due to a decrease in impairment of intangible assets but administrative expenses were down too.

With EcoCash and Steward Bank accounted for, that’s 80% of revenue done.

The backup dancers

Insuretech saw its contribution to group revenue dip slightly from 15% to 14%. EcoSure remains the main Insuretech business.

What I can say is that we are seeing fewer and fewer complaints from people being signed up for EcoSure without their consent. That is a positive because in past years those complaints called into question the growth EcoSure was reporting.

They say their market share grew by 8% from 2021. Could Zimbabweans be starting to warm up to EcoSure after the Ecolife debacle? It’s starting to look so.

With Insuretech accounted for that’s 94% of EcoCash Holdings group revenue spoken for.

Vaya

EcoCash says Vaya is the Holding company for their platform-based solutions. Of the Vaya solutions, most are familiar with Vaya Mobility which provides on-demand ride-hailing services.

On the ground, all is not rosy with the ride-hailing service. For one, the experience with 3rd party driver partners differs from the one with their 1st party drivers. What’s crazy is that the 3rd party guys are flexible and offer better service.

Some of that has to do with 1st party drivers only taking USD cash or EcoCash. 3rd party drivers will take whatever you have and will even offer a better rate than the 1st party guys do. The official rate used by 1st party drivers is higher than the street rate and 3rd party guys do not use it.

Then there is the app. For some reason, the Android app does not have an RTGS option and the iOS one does not have the USD option. Why? Who knows?

The other well-known Vaya business is Mars, the emergency medical care services provider. It boasts 140,000 members and that sounds good.

The rest of the Vaya businesses are an enigma. Ownai, the e-commerce platform looks dead, it’s nothing but empty menus for the most part. Apart from groceries, most categories are empty, when I checked I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw the lone item under Laptops and Desktops is a $6.42 32GB Flash drive.

I don’t imagine the other Vaya businesses like Maisha and Akello or even the Vaya digital farmer are killing it. There are way too many businesses for them to only contribute 6% to group revenues. The language in the EcoCash Holdings report shows that they still view these businesses as potential. Will they unlock that potential? Time will tell.

The band plays on

EcoCash Holdings group revenues were up 26% to ZW$29.9 billion from $23.8 billion in 2021. That’s an increase of $6.1 billion and Steward Bank was responsible for half of that increase, having seen a $3 billion increase in revenue.

That was then solidified by the pesky foreign exchange losses dropping by $5.1 billion in the same year.

The other positive was the expert cost management on display. We saw how Steward Bank actually saw admin expenses decrease, that’s impossibly good in this inflationary Zimbabwean environment. For the whole group, admin expenses, which form the bulk of operating expenses, only increased by about $1 billion.

In the year ended February 2022, the band that is EcoCash Holdings was more of a band than a lone act supported by session musicians. As EcoCash, the mobile money service, had a less-than-stellar year, Steward Bank in particular picked up the slack.

That’s how it should be, when the lead singer hits the wrong note, the guitar player should mask that with a lick. However, EcoCash still feels like a duo like Daft Punk. The Fintech guys are doing the heavy lifting.

Also read:

EcoCash has lost 3.1 million customers since 2020, what or who is to blame?

Cassava results: EcoCash revenue drops by $5bn, Steward Bank’s by $1.4bn in tough year

The post EcoCash Holdings results: mobile money business struggled but Steward Bank picked up the slack appeared first on Techzim.

Last month Techzim conducted a survey to determine the level and form of usage of the EcoCash USD wallet. The survey was shared mostly with the Techzim community on WhatsApp and social media as well communities around Techzim related platforms: Pindula and Soccer 24. The response to the survey was quite high at 441 respondents.

In general (and particularly in relation to the Techzim community) these targeted individuals are considered (ummm by us) to be early adopters. Therefore, their usage of products and services could be predictive of future acceptability of the product by the mainstream BUT in some cases these people are just extreme geeks who will try out stuff that (us) normal people will never touch with a 30 meter pole. Anyway, let’s get into the results of the survey:

First: who are these respondents?

The above demographics charts demonstrate that the sample was quite representative except when it comes to gender- Techzim community members please invite more ladies to our platforms. Education status and employment status shows that indeed this group is likely to be more of the early adopters. That percentage of formal employment is above the 28% of labour force reported by Zimstat for example which we can assume to be some level of privilege in the Zim context.

How have they used EcoCash USD wallet?

Impressive, not impressive?

The annotations to the above charts show that Ruth, Techzim’s head of research was not impressed by the usage numbers. The title to this article shows that I disagree with Ruth. I was not expecting any sort of usage above 10% whether or not the sample consisted of early adopters and experimenters.

18.4% of the respondents claim that they received money into their EcoCash USD wallet at least once before. I am impressed by this number and all the above numbers because I know how we Zimbabweans do not trust formal systems with our money anymore. We have had the central bank and the government change policies on us leaving us holding empty bags and them walking away with our savings several times in just over 10 years. I thought the resounding response to EcoCash USD (yes I know they call it FCA) would be ‘no thank you.’

The sender dictates

The survey shows that the most common transaction is receiving money into the wallet. The other transactions are quite similar in frequency but just below the receiving one. I think this shows that the USD wallet is probably being funded through the choice of people who send money especially those in the diaspora (our survey didn’t explicitly ask where the money was sent from) without perhaps asking the recipients how they would want to receive the money.

My wife has an uncle in the UK who sends money to her parents from time to time. He sends the money to her for onward delivery to the parents. No matter how many times we tell this uncle to use service A or B to do this because it would be more convenient for my wife, he keeps using service C! At some point we threatened that we would not help him anymore with his transactions but he called our bluff and continued to send through service C. Whoever sends the money calls the shots!

Why do they use the Ecocash USD wallet?

Quite surprised by the prevalence of the word affordable when our respondents were asked what they liked about EcoCash USD wallet. The government’s 4% tax has made this service and any other formal service quite pricey. Is it that the informal channels cost even more?

Now the flip side- what sucks about the wallet?

Contradictions, contradictions: now, the most important impediment seems to be fees. Unsurprisingly issues to do with government policy inconsistency and how the formal system is more dangerous than the mattress weigh down on how far people will adopt the EcoCash USD wallet. The curtailing of the EcoCash agent network is obviously a big deal in limiting the usefulness of EcoCash in general and the results show there- this is the government again. Customer support and other service issues given above are solely on EcoCash and they should be wise to pay attention to the expressed sentiment.

So, what?

EcoCash and other formal players like Innbucks still have a chance as the economy dollarises. Convincing these more tech and finance savvy folks to use their service at this level in so short a time is an impressive feat in my view. They just have to figure out why exactly these people are using the service and work on the reasons given for disliking the service given above and they could again get mainstream adoption.

The post Above 18% of “early adopters” using EcoCash USD wallet, much higher than we expected appeared first on Techzim.

In Zimbabwe, it’s tough to tell whether or not a service is facing an outage or it’s just another day at the office with Network challenges. However, the EcoCash service is currently facing some challenges and is giving out an error “External Application down” even when dialing *151#. EcoCash Holdings issued out a statement saying:

Customer Notice
EcoCash

Dear Valued Customer
Please note you might be experiencing intermittent service on the EcoCash platform. Our technical team is working to restore normal service at the earliest.

Any inconveniences caused is sincerely regretted.

EcoCash Holdings

Seems like spreading your cash over different payment platforms is always the pro tip move just so you don’t get stranded. And you can still buy Econet airtime on Techzim with OneMoney by just dialing *405#. It’s still up.

Also Read:

• Above 18% of “early adopters” using EcoCash USD wallet, much higher than we expected
• EcoCash Junior wallet for 9-18 year olds is excellent, it was long overdue
• If you’re sending USD don’t cash into EcoCash, use the vouchers instead

The post EcoCash service is down appeared first on Techzim.

Last year the Zimbabwe government got a little greedy and decided to increase tax on domestic USD transfers from 2% to 4%. It was a bad idea and it took only about 6 months for them to revert back to 2%.

When they announced this tax cut we all worried it was too little too late. We shall see how it all pans out over the course of the year.

The tax cut was effective 1 January 2023 and we are starting to see remittance service providers adjust their fare tables.

Being the marketing geniuses they are, they are of course spinning it to say they are lowering transfer charges. They are not really revising their own charges down but rather are just reducing the fare by the 2% that IMT Tax was reduced by.

It is fair that they are doing this because when the high tax made their services more expensive they took the brunt of the flak.

InnBucks came out over a week ago talking about their downward adjustment of fees from 5% to 3%.

EcoCash is the latest to announce a fee adjustment. They are pretty much matching what InnBucks is charging.

If you send $100 via EcoCash, you will be charged $5 (5%) after the recipient cashes out. The govt takes $2 and EcoCash takes $1.30 when you send the money and $1.70 when the recipient cashes out.

It may seem like EcoCash is charging more than InnBucks but the 3% that InnBucks markets is before the 2% withdrawal fee. With both remittance services, you must cough up 5% to send any amount above $5. Most of the competition has also settled on 5%.

We’ve had high transfer fees for years and one is tempted to think 5% is a decent charge. Those are high charges, but coming from 7%, it feels like a win.

So, with the market settling on 5%, transfer costs are no longer a factor when picking a service. Convenience becomes the major factor. In my case, the neighbourhood shopping centre does not have a Simbisa outlet and so InnBucks is not really an option. It has to be either EcoCash or MojoMula for me.

I used MojoMula recently and it was just as painless to use as the other two we are talking about.

I had to register on the day as it was the only service my recipient would accept. Registration involved filling in a few lines on a little form and so I don’t think anyone needs to worry about it. Whichever service is geographically convenient should be alright.

Cash availability on the recipient’s end is the one thing you have to worry about. Let’s be real, very few of us receive these US dollars and keep them in those wallets. Most of us withdraw at our earliest convenience.

That’s why I insist on saying InnBucks costs 5% to use because 9 times out of 10, the 2% withdrawal fee comes into play.

I know you have been using these services. In your experience, which service providers always deliver when it comes to cash? It matters little how many outlets a service has or how little it costs to use if the recipient cannot withdraw on demand. Do let us know in the comments below.

Also read:

InnBucks announces fees for 2023. Charges dropped from 5% to 3%!

Govt cuts tax on domestic forex transfers from 4 to 2%, too little too late?

The post Ecocash is the latest to drop USD transaction charges from 7% to 5% after tax appeared first on Techzim.

It’s been in the news but it’s not really new. However, if we all missed it when it happened then we might as well talk about it today. EcoCash partnered with Remitly, a US financial services provider.

Remitly is all about remittances as their name suggests. So, when EcoCash partnered with them it was to allow people living outside Zimbabwe, mostly Zimbabweans living abroad, to send money back home easily.

This means Remitly becomes one of the latest in a growing list of EcoCash partners that allows Zimbabweans abroad to send money home. The list includes big hitters like Moneygram, Western Union and Xoom PayPal.

It is imperative that EcoCash keeps racking up these partnerships. The business of remittances is all about offering convenience for the sender. The more partners EcoCash gets, the higher the chances that a sender finds one most convenient for them.

Asking a would-be-sender to jump through hoops, join queues and fill out forms is one way to make sure they don’t as frequently as they would otherwise. We can’t have that, now can we? This Zimbabwean economy is built on those incoming remittances.

The recipient is not as particular about which service is used, to be honest. A recipient is not even fussy about the money coming in through their EcoCash account. If there is a branch close by, even from EcoCash’s rivals that can deliver the cash, very few would be opposed to using it.

The EcoCash Remitly partnership means the recipient can receive their money straight into their EcoCash account. Once it’s in there, they can withdraw or spend as they see fit.

EcoCash is not the only partner that Remitly has in Zimbabwe. They also have partnerships with Mukuru, ZB and First Capital bank. You, as the recipient can choose whichever is most convenient to you too.

I know that most of us would be recipients but your benefactor would want to know how much Remitly charges. It depends on the amount being sent and how quickly they want the money sent.

To send up to $300, it costs $7 for the transfer to be made immediately. It costs $6 to have the funds arrive within 3-5 business days. Tell your mbinga to visit the Remitly website to see the full table.

That’s what it costs the sender. Over here in Zimbabwe, you will have to deal with EcoCash’s own charges. The same goes for the other Remitly partners.

Also read:

You can now receive PayPal transfers directly into an EcoCash USD wallet

Above 18% of “early adopters” using EcoCash USD wallet, much higher than we expected

Uhuru, the remittance via WhatsApp service gets RBZ approval to start testing

Bereka, the local startup delivering Mukuru remittances to your doorstep

The post EcoCash partners US company to offer another avenue to send funds to Zimbabwe through appeared first on Techzim.