With the current cash crisis still looming over Zimbabwe, most people are turning to EcoCash as their only hope of getting some much needed hard currency. However, most money is still being held up in bank accounts, which presents a bit of an issue when you need hard currency.
The only way to maintain your bank account and enjoy the EcoCash convenience is by linking the two together. But not all banks have warmed up to that idea. So, here is a list of banks you can link your EcoCash account with:
- CBZ
- Stanbic
- Steward Bank
- NMB
- BancABC
- ZB Bank
- Agribank
Interesting that there is a 50/50 split between banks integrated with EcoCash and banks resisting or completely refusing to link to/with Ecocash, these include:
- Barclays
- EcoBank
- FBC
- MBCA
- MetBank
- POSB
- Standard Chartered Zimbabwe
According to Econet, you need to follow the following steps to get your account linked:
- Visit your bank to complete & sign an Indemnity Form with the following information:
- Full Name and surname
- National ID
- Mobile Number
- Bank account number
- Your information will have to be verified first before your registration can be complete.
- A confirmation message will be sent to you once the registration has been completed successfully
Most payments, wages, and salaries are now being paid via bank-to-bank transfers or “swiping”, but that does not assure you of actually getting hold of cash. With 6 million subscribers, 26k agents and 20k merchants countrywide, Eco Cash seems to offer the most promising cash guarantee in the banking ecosystem right now, even if it means waiting for your local agent to get a cash in.
Interesting that there are still some banks resisting linking with/to the EcoCash system. CABS for example, with its Textacash system, has little or no intention of linking with EcoCash, a sentiment they have held since 2013. But with the ongoing cash crisis and the long queue now seen at every single CABS branch, it might be time for a change of thinking, at least to ease pressure on themselves and give customers some cash relief.
Share
Home
30 comments
Ko CABS?
CABS is not a bank, its a building society
It’s name and roots may be as a building society, but it is technically a bank. It has a banking license and is treated as such under financial law & regulations. It offers retail and other banking services.
So stop being shallow & petty and discuss the issue at hand.
wadii wangotaura kuti CABS inotita here or haiite ecocash as far as you know,zvekuti petty and shallow zvabvepi and does not add to the conversation. It was my opinion that CABS does not link up also because its a building society and not a bank but it appears the issue is that CABS has texta cash its own similar version so it would rather promote its own.
SC is my i appaud them for refusing to link with Ecocash garbage. They are useless money hoarders even of you defend and write more abou them than Ecocash
Standard Chartered we don’t need Ecocash. We can readily access our funds anytime without queues or hustles.
Oh dear – how times have changed! I found this article after searching the internet for ways I might be able to link my SC account to Ecocash since these days there is no cash without queues – even Bonds I was turned away from the queue at 7.45am one Monday morning and told they had only a few coins left from the weekend!
…and I should add that of course I use my card for most transactions, but still some things here and there that I am currently forgoing completely because they can only take cash…it is killing some businesses I am sure!
I recently left a bank I’d been with since I was a “junior account holder” at 12 years old. The reason is simple – they wont link with ecocash making it impossible for me to do simple transactions without cash.
Since the cash crisis started I’ve been able to reduce my use of “hard cash” – I swipe – I transfer electronically etc. Ecocash further allows me to transact without cash for little things like paying my hairdresser, buying from informal businesses/flea markets etc Ecocash is the way to go!
You’re not good at hiding the fact that you’re an Econet employee.
Easy ways to sound genuine.
one of the biggest bank in zim is left why #CABS
FBC better shape up or I’ll leave
CABS is not a bank, its a building society.
Batsirai, I think it is wrong and misleading to say the so called banks are “resisting or completely refusing to link to/with Ecocash”, unless you go the evidence to show for it. From what I know it is a process linking up the banks core system with ecocash. Not only that but it takes time and resources. Most banking systems are not that flexible. Also bot all those that are linked up actually work flawlessly. Again maybe you have the evidence that they are resisting. Whichever the case what happened to good investigative and informative writing. it seems Techzim is now churning out articles for the sake of it.
Hi Thomas, so linking up a bank’s core system with eco cash takes 3 years? I highly doubt that, even with the “time and resources” you speak of. EcoCash proposed linking systems in 2013 with all banks, it is well recorded that CABS led a crusade against such a move.It was not in their best interest since they were promoting a similar product, textacash.
Secondly, you cannot deny EcoCash dominance in the market, so since its inception, would it not be in the public’s interest to link the platforms.
Either way, at the end of the day, the consumer will choose what is right for them based on this article and this was the intended purpose.
But thank you for your “assesment”
Yes ecocash dominates the market but is it in the best interests of some of the foreign banks to partner with ecocash. Maybe you may investigate this for us. But since you are always complaining about resources I guess you will always subject us to your “standard” bloggong
foreign banks operate in Zimbabwe by choice and not by force, whether they are comfortable opening up their systems to EcoCash is not the public’s concern, the ZIMBABWEAN public wants services that suit their life and will not wait until foreign banks “interests” are met.
Batsirai
I do not know why it has taken the banks more than three years to integrate with Ecocash, and i doubt you know either or you would have shared with us. My issue is not on why the banks have not taken up Ecocash. My “assessment” is that there is a bigger story here that you did not explore. Why has it taken this long, what was Econet’s stance been? What are the conditions that Banks need to integrate? Does it create a level playing field? What about from the Banks point of view? As players in business it has to make sense for them.
Bottom line there is a lot of generalisation that goes on on Techzim. Like I said I miss the old Techzim.
Working for Africa’s leading payments provider, i think i can comment on this one, without being accused of favoring anyone. Cellulant has powered M-pesa- to Bank transactions since the inception of such service, and Mobile Money services in Kenya can be attested to as being a big driver of payments. Banks want to connect to Ecocash, i think the model they have selected is inflexible. In Kenya, as a mobile banking customer, you can select to fund money out of your account to M-pesa without filling in a form, it’s just enabled on your banks mobile banking service. Every single bank has deployed Mpesa B2C service, through simple integration, but they did it because Safaricom was willing to work with the banks. Banks were not competing for mobile banking revenues against Safaricom, and MPESA service is actually the leading set of transactions for any bank. The collaboration with banks came as a result of compromise on the part of Safaricom and a recognition that the banks too are long-term partners.
Ecocash’s model is one of contempt for the banks, ” it communicates hey, i have 6M customers on my platform, integrate the way i say or move along, who needs you. I think in a negotiation every party must be willing to compromise..
Why dont they allow banks to link into Ecocash from the bank’s mobile banking USSD services, that way not take away all transaction sets from the banks. They don’t need to be fighting with banks over something petty as a balance enquiry transaction on *151#, or airtime revenue when they are a billion dollar business…
My bank is listed among those that are linked, but im not going to go fill a form to get a service, its a ridiculous approach to such a crucial service.
To protect their wallet, so that banks dont transfer RTGS or virtual funds only, they should make banks prefund the Ecocash Float, that way when a customer is pushing funds from their account to Ecocash, only the bank’s ecocash float is debited, and a credit is created into an Ecocash account….
I think if Ecocash was willing to approach banks from a position of equality not dominance over the other, the entire market right now would be having this service.
Angela you nailed it, spot on!
However banks themselves in zim have proved over and over again that they are not willing to be flexible, to move with the times, to reduce their charges and the ridiculous paperwork and every 5 minutes needing photographs that you have provided over and over again! Yes is it crazy to fill in a form for information the bank and econet already hold but that seems to be life in zimbabwe form after form that gets conveniently ‘lost’ especially when the customer needs something!
The writer is possibly a Econet worker,you cant tell us that we have Eco-cach alone as an integrating system.Why are you not mentioning Tele-chach and One Wallet because from my understanding is that FBC AND CABS are integrated with Tele-cash as i speak nad i have been using the system for long.
Ask your self why did Ecocash do not want to transfer cash across networks.
…..driving from Byo to Hre last week I had a breakdown just before Kadoma. Without cash on me but in my bank…….I thank you EcoCash for Bank to Wallet facility……in few minutes I managed to pay a nearby mechanic with EcoCash and 1hr later I safely drove to Harare.
Ndongano dzeEcocash agent (stooge) idzi. Another post by Econet zombies.
Yes Ecocash really works and for all the trolls who simply label someone who has something good to say for ecocash – go and troll somewhere else and actually try the system first!
Government should take a stand on this issue and make a policy pronouncement on it. Mobile money services should be enabled across all networks and all banking institutions together with other financial services providers like all kinds of insurance.
I do not know why it has taken the banks more than three years to integrate with Ecocash, and i doubt you know either or you would have shared with us. My issue is not on why the banks have not taken up Ecocash. My “assessment” is that there is a bigger story here that you did not explore. Why has it taken this long, what was Econet’s stance been? What are the conditions that Banks need to integrate? Does it create a level playing field? What about from the Banks
recently left a bank I’d been with since I was a “junior account holder” at 12 years old. The reason is simple – they wont link with ecocash making it impossible for me to do simple transactions without cash
Yes Ecocash really works and for all the trolls who simply label someone who has something good to say for ecocash