Econet announces EcoCash system optimisation

Econet Wireless CEO Douglas Mboweni

• Positions platform for increased transaction volumes

ECONET Wireless Wireless Zimbabwe Limited (EWZL) has moved to reassure customers of its popular EcoCash service regarding the planned maintenance work it has scheduled to carry out over the Heroes holiday weekend. 

Econet this week announced in multiple media channels – in newspaper adverts, on radio, via its SMS service and on its social media platforms – that the company planned to carry out scheduled maintenance work on its mobile money transfer platform from 10pm on Saturday night, August 12, 2017 up to 2pm the following day, Sunday, August 13, 2017.

EWZL’s Chief Executive Officer, Douglas Mboweni, said the scheduled maintenance work would optimize the EcoCash platform to handle increased volumes of transactions in the coming months in light of the increased adoption of fintech (Finance and Technology) services and ahead of the busy festive season.

“This is scheduled work we are carrying out on the EcoCash platform. Apart from the EcoCash system, we routinely carry out maintenance and upgrade work on our various network platforms to ensure optimal, robust performance and to guarantee career-grade stability on our platforms”, Mboweni said.

As the country’s cash challenges persist, the volume of Ecocash and electronic bank transactions have shot up by close to 80 percent over the past 18 months.

Ecocash’s General Manager, Natalie Jabangwe, confirmed that the maintenance work would position the platform to handle more customers and more transactions going forward.

“The system optimization is meant to enhance the system’s performance and improve the customer experience”, said Jabangwe, adding that the decision to carry out the maintenance work was made months back, and that the company settled for the weekend of a public holiday to minimize any inconvenience the maintenance work might cause to both their business and consumer customers.

“The timing is all to do with trying to minimize any disruption this vital work might cause to our valued customers, merchants and business partners,” said Jabangwe, who reiterated that the maintenance work would last for a maximum 16 hours, between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

Ecocash is the largest mobile money transacting platform among Zimbabwe’s three mobile operators (Econet, NetOne and Telecel) and is currently connected to 10 banks in the country.

Its volume of transactions has grown rapidly over the past two years on the back of liquidity challenges in Zimbabwe and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s deliberate drive to promote electronic transactions and to achieve financial inclusion among the previously unbanked.

Ahead of the maintenance work on Saturday night, Jabangwe called on Ecocash users to carry out any urgent transactions they need to make before Saturday evening or after Sunday afternoon to avoid any inconvenience. 

“We are encouraging our customers to make any critical transactions, such as paying for their electricity token, airtime, buying fuel, groceries and so forth, before Saturday night or after Sunday afternoon.”