We Have Shut Down Over 1000 Agent Lines For Selling Cash – EcoCash

EcoCash agents are now infamous for selling cash (charging higher cash-out rates) to customers. In a way, they are the heartbeat of the currency black market.

But unbeknownst to them, EcoCash has been monitoring them to see who has been charging “fees outside the regulated charges”. As result, mobile money platform has closed down over 1000 EcoCash agent lines in the last 3 months, according to EcoCash’s General Manager, Munyaradzi Nhamo. As reported by 263Chat, EcoCash’s General Manager said:

We are aware of some of the activities that some of our agents have been participating in and we have been penalizing agents. Within the past three months we have managed to penalize over a thousand agents whom we have closed who have been charging customers fees outside the regulated charges
If there are any customers who have been prejudiced by some of our agents can they kindly advise us and we take corrective action. It is our desire that whatever service that we provide as Ecocash complies with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) regulations and if there are any agents, you are welcome to advise us on either 114 or even drop any anonymous notes or visit any of our Ecocash office then we can pick it up.

Now here’s some laudable practical action by EcoCash. When we now see/hear it issuing warning agents not to sell money we know that they mean it.

Commendable as it is (penalizing the agents), EcoCash still has a long way to go to solve this problem as it has well over 50 000 EcoCash agents who they have to monitor and penalize. One can be excused in speculating that all of the agents are in the business of selling cash.

Not a one man task

EcoCash can only do so much, it needs to be supported by the so-called Financial Intelligence Unit to bring sanity in the mobile money sector (and currency market). If only the Financial Intelligence Unit could work with EcoCash to track down unscrupulous agents and arrest them then other agents will be dissuaded to partake in this so-called cash-trading business.