The primary use of mobile money in Zimbabwe has been shut down by the central bank

guest · Sep 30, 2019

The primary use of mobile money in Zimbabwe has been shut down by the central bank
September 30, 2019
https://qz.com/africa/1719085/zimbabwe-shuts-down-mobile-money-cash-options-with-ecocash/

Mobile money is fast blossoming in Africa, boosted by rising mobile adoption across the continent, but in Zimbabwe—which is battling a severe financial crunch—the most common cash-in and cash-out functionalities have just been killed off as the government battles to contain the country’s economic crisis.
Cash-out is process of converting mobile wallet balances into hard cash while cash-in refers to the process of depositing cash into a mobile wallet.

These functionalities, in addition to sending and receiving money as well as payments at supermarkets and other merchants and cross transfers from and into bank accounts constitute the most impactful financial inclusion use cases that mobile money is hinged on across Africa.
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Yet in Zimbabwe, cash-in and cash-out has just been killed off by the government, apparently because authorities in the have concluded that the functions are being abused. Zimbabwean mobile money agents, mostly from the dominant EcoCash platform, have been capitalizing on cash shortages in Zimbabwe to buy cash for re-sale to mobile wallet holders at a premium of up to 50%. This means that when trying to access funds in your mobile wallet through the agents, one would only get about 50% of their balance.

With the disabling of cash-in and cash-out options, there are concerns from the mobile money ecosystem in Zimbabwe [...]
Large chunks of the country’s economy runs through electronic systems and mobile money, which is dominated by Econet’s Ecocash with 95% market share. It’s estimated around 5 million transactions a day moving more than $200 million.
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The primary use of mobile money in Zimbabwe has been shut down by the central bank

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The primary use of mobile money in Zimbabwe has been shut down by the central bank

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