RBZ Mid-Term Monetary Policy shows a slowed growth in mobile money

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe 

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Mid-Term Monetary Policy statement which was unveiled by the Central Bank Governor Dr Mangudya revealed a slow growth in mobile money from the end of 2014 to July 2015.

The number of mobile money subscribers increased by a meagre 2.8 % to 6,230,738 from 6,060,630. This could be attributed to the saturation on the EcoCash platform, no input to growth from the troubled Telecash, OneWallet not improving and a duplicitous contribution from Nettcash.

However, the combined efforts to increase reach through agency distribution saw an increase in both the agency network and point of sale terminals respectively.

An 18.2% increase in agents was noted from 25,618 to 30,274, and 26.1% increase in Point of Sale (POS) Population was noted from 12,612 in 2014 to 15,908. This could be a result of the increase in POS terminals from Nettcash which was on a roll since launch earlier this year, a proliferation of agency banking from Steward Bank and ZB Bank, a general increase in terminals from EcoCash and the other banks combined. CABS and POSB have been on a drive to transform branch banking to POS interfacing as opposed to over the counter transactions.

ATMs, on the other hand have actually reduced by 2 terminals which hardly reflects any loss from the closed banks AfrAsia and Allied Bank in this first half.

An interesting development is however the loss of debit cards and prepaid cards which fell 36.1% from 3,613,781 to 2,309,402 and 10.8% from 28,881 to 25,763 respectively, despite the EcoCash and Telecash cards rollout.

Credit cards on the contrary increased by 10.3% from 9,547 to 10,531 showing a possible success in fine lending within the banks which is not really an issue as the product is usually reserved for priority customers.

You can download the full 2015 RBZ Mid-Term Monetary Policy Statement from the pdf link below

RBZ Mid-Term Monetary Policy 2015