It seems ‘swipe into EcoCash’ continues to garner headlines for the wrong reasons.
Since the turn of the year, the service has descended into chaos and in February EcoCash came out and stated that the problems that customers were facing whilst trying to transact using the platform were a result of server issues. These problems include double debits, delayed confirmation of transactions or failure to transact.
It now seems that Zimswitch had instructed Steward Bank to discontinue the ‘Swipe Into EcoCash’ service, though they may have managed to hash it out peacefully.
The General Manager of ZimSwitch, Cyril Nyatsanza, talked about the reasons behind EcoCash being ordered to stop the service:
Reference is made to several meetings between Steward bank and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe NPS division in an effort to find a solution to the Swipe into Ecocash transaction challenges which have been raised by the industry. You will be aware that at one of the meetings, the RBZ was categorically clear that Swipe into Ecocash is not a purchase transaction and should not be switched as such. We note with concern that Steward Bank has failed to implement the change and swipe into Ecocash transactions continue to be routed as transaction type 00-Purchase instead of the agreed type 50. Steward bank is therefore directed with effect from Wednesday 23 May to suspend with immediate effect the processing of the swipe into Ecocash transactions across Zimbabwe until transaction type has been regularized.
This ban was supposed to come into effect tomorrow but now it seems the issue is resolved. EcoCash released a press statement stating that the service was going to be functional and that there was nothing wrong, and if there were any problems, EcoCash might have fixed the issue and are now in the RBZ’s good books. If you’ve been following the news recently you’ll know that getting on the RBZ’s ‘noise-makers list’ may not be the best of ideas. Just ask Golix.
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7 comments
I think banks are at fault as well ecocash… They should be free mvts from bank account to ecocash and vice versa but each one want to hold onto their ecosystem… Take Barclays Bank they like a black hole… No ecocash integration so swipr to ecocash is the only option… To make matters worse they only allow zipit in and not out… As a result your money stuck in there with only RTGS that takes 3 days plus a ridiculous fee of 5$… Not competitive and they actually losing customers… There should be seamless integration with customer choosing how they want to move money at a reasonable price… Is it not time rbz actually did their job
but for purposes of tax compliance etc then you need to classify something accordingly. bity sides are wrong to an extent but Econet and steward stop playing the victim and fix the transaction code.
whats type 50 or type 00
type 00 is a purchase, type 50 is payment into account. the transactions are charged differently. if the charges set by the RBZ last June still hold a purchase can only be charged a max of 45c per transaction whilst transfers and rtgs cost between $2 and $5. which i guess is where Zimswitch was losing out. even if you swipe into ecocash $500 you will only be charged 45c because it is falling under type 00 (purchase)
It’s not about ZimSwitch losing out. The regulated price of a swipe is independent of the purpose of your transaction. It’s about tracking money. A person swiping $1000 into EcoCash each day, and a person buying $1000 worth of goods each day, probably have different agendas. The former is more likely to be involved in money laundering. Remember that the issue was raised by the RBZ, not by ZimSwitch.
You said it perfectly
TechZim should educate people on this
Why ban? As a customer I really do not care about type 00 or 50 all I need is to be able to move my money from the bank and use Ecocash to transact. It is better for me to purchase using merchant code *151*2*………# as I wont be debited if the transaction fails unlike using a card then the transaction might fail and still have my account debited. Econet guys are very innovative and they noticed a gap in the market. I hope whatever issues if any will be resolved without banning the service.