The EcoCash feature that’s asking for your nickname is supposed to help you recover your PIN

If you are one of the millions of Zimbabweans who use EcoCash regularly to make payments or move money then you’ve already noticed the mobile money service’s latest feature, SelfCare.

You’ll see it when you enter your EcoCash PIN code and are asked to respond to 3 simple security questions (like “What was your nickname in school”)  to sign up for it.

It doesn’t work for any EcoCash wallet that’s integrated with a bank account, which is probably a growing number of EcoCash subscribers judging from the way people have been using this as a bank queue avoidance solution.

The service is optional you don’t have to sign up for it. However, if you do decide not to activate it (which is only achieved by going through a tedious USSD signup process of answering the three security questions) it will haunt you every time you access your wallet with a less than subtle reminder.

EcoCash seems intent on getting everyone to use it, which is probably a simple way of avoiding PIN reactivation requests.

For subscribers the value proposition is pretty straightforward  – this is a convenience feature meant to provide subscribers who forget their password a way to regain access to their wallet remotely without contacting EcoCash customer care.