Ecocash moves $11 bln in last three and half years

Ecocash moves $11 bln in last three and half years

KARIBA – Econet Zimbabwe says its financial services platform, Ecocash has cumulatively transacted over $11 bln in the last three and half years.

Econet Head Business and Marketing Development Natalie Jabangwe-Morris told an Institute of Charted Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) seminar for accounting students in the resort town of Kariba, that the group has propped up financial inclusion in the economy, incorporating the previously unbanked population.

EcoCash was launched on September 29, 2011.

“In more than three and half years, we have cumulatively moved $11 bln in this economy,” she said adding that at least 450 mln transactions were conducted on the platform with agencies now in excess of 20 000 countrywide.

Jabangwe-Morris said before Ecocash, the majority of Zimbabweans were not banked and were excluded from the financial services sector of the economy.

“EcoCash, since its inception, has helped to improve financial inclusion as over 60 percent of Zimbabwe’s adult population, which previously had no access to banking services, had access to the mobile money platform,” she said.

Jabangwe-Morris said at present the banking sector has in excess of 1.3 mln accounts while EcoCash wallets are now at 4.5 mln. She added that in a bid to influence the saving culture in the economy, EcocashSave platform currently had 1.5 mln accounts.

The EcoCash platform has been designed to now offer the debit card, payroll, bill payment services, Ecocash online and an airtime facility. Although the coming in of EcoCash has tremendously revolutionised banking and money transfer, it has often been suggested that the platform tends to lock their customers down by restricting transactions carried out on the platform to Econet subscribers only.

Econet has over the years introduced new innovations aimed at diversifying revenue streams which include the Eco Shopper, EcoFarmer, Eco-sure among many others.

According to a latest Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) total value of mobile and internet based transactions registered a 5% decline in April to $453.61 million from $476.38 mainly affected by the holidays in the month. However the trend is expected to turn positive going forward.

In her address to the CA students, Jabangwe-Morris said accounting people are critical in decisions involving capital investments.

“People in accounting firms are key to capital investments, business advising and making decisions, thus you need to embrace technology and innovation to drive organisational behaviours,” she said.

She said financial innovation is key to improving organisational behaviour which will bring new revenues for sustained growth.

Meanwhile new data from Juniper Research has revealed how Service Providers are benefiting from the boom in mobile money transfer services – with $2bn in revenues forecast for this year and $4bn annually 2018.

The new research, Mobile Money Transfer & Remittance: Domestic & International Markets 2015-2020, pointed to Africa as being the leading market. Several African mobile operators – such as Vodacom Tanzania and MTN Uganda – are now generating more than 10% of their revenues from mobile money. Meanwhile, Safaricom’s MPESA service, the trailblazer in the sector, recorded mobile money revenues of more than $330m in the latest financial year, making it the most successful mobile or online money transfer service worldwide.

According to the research, recent surges in both transaction volumes and values were being driven by increased implementation of both cross-border and intra-national remittance interoperability. The research cited the traffic uplifts engendered by recent agreements between Safaricom and MTN (for the Rwanda-Kenya corridor) and by national interoperability agreements in markets such as Tanzania and Pakistan.

The research also highlighted a shift in service provider requirements, with the majority now seeking to deploy smartphone applications in tandem with USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data)/IVR (Interactive Voice Response) mobile money solutions, thereby futureproofing them in anticipation of greater medium-term smartphone adoption.

However, the research cautioned that while inadequate regulation still constrained growth in a number of markets, in many cases low adoption or activity rates could be attributed to poor decision making by service providers. According to research author Dr Windsor Holden, ‘There are too many instances where service marketing is inappropriate or incorrectly targeted; where the message simply isn’t reaching the desired audience.’

The research also observed that in Nigeria, a number of services had failed to gain repeat usage because of the high cash-out fees, while savings accounts in other markets had withdrawal fees that were inappropriate for low-income users/savers.