There was a time when EcoCash and banks were in a cold war. At the time Zimbabwe had gone cashless and the fight for who got the transaction volumes raged a little too fiercely.
EcoCash had taken the nation by storm and had a near monopoly on volumes, whilst the banks had the values game on lock. However, as transaction fees gained more importance to financial institutions’ bottom lines, banks wanted the regular folks and their $5 transactions too.
So, the banks ran to daddy government, to force EcoCash to play nice with others. They were after interoperability, they wanted EcoCash to allow cross platform transfers.
Of course, EcoCash was in no hurry to oblige. They had a siloed platform, a cash cow they had no intention of letting slip.
However, life happened and stuff like this came out.
It shall be mandatory for every money transmission provider and mobile banking provider shall be connected to a national payment switch, as shall be directed by written notice by the Reserve Bank from time to time that enables interoperability of payments systems and services.
S.I 80 of 2020 – Banking (Money Transmission, Mobile Banking and Mobile Money
Interoperability) Regulations
So started the government’s systematic wing-clipping efforts. EcoCash saw the writing on the wall and has steadily been integrating with others. Which leads us to this:
EcoCash now integrated with all banks
EcoCash is now fully integrated with all commercial banks across the country. That’s AFC Commercial Bank, BancABC, CABS, CBZ Bank, Ecobank, FBC Bank, First Capital Bank, MetBank, Nedbank, NMB Bank, POSB, Stanbic Bank, Steward Bank and ZB Bank.
Knowing Zimbabwe, I can’t imagine it was easy getting this done. So, kudos to EcoCash.
This means you can now move money from any bank account to EcoCash and vice versa. You know these transactions as bank-to-wallet and wallet-to-bank.
This remains a big deal to those that are still banked. There are millions of Zimbabweans who don’t have bank accounts and millions of small merchants that likewise rely on mobile money for their digital banking needs.
An example use case: When a banked individual with money in their account wants to pay a neighbourhood handyman, it will likely have to be cash. So, they just do a bank-to-wallet transaction, head over to the nearest EcoCash agent by the tuckshop, cash out and pay the man.
Without the bank-to-wallet, that transaction would likely require the banked individual to travel to the CBD to visit an ATM which might not have the cash.
EcoCash said:
This development is a win-win for bank and EcoCash customers, and is part of EcoCash’s commitment to create a fully inclusive financial ecosystem in Zimbabwe, in which customers can easily access their funds and make transactions anytime, anywhere – with great convenience – even outside working hours and during the holidays,
It goes both ways, I guess, on paper. Banks will also benefit from EcoCash funds flowing into the banking system. I’m not too sure how much of this happens these days.
So, unfortunately for the banks, the landscape has changed and they won’t benefit that much from this EcoCash integration. Zimbabwe is no longer cashless and EcoCash does not command as high of a market share as it did when they pined for its business.
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5 comments
As long those shtty rates still apply then u can forget bout bank to wallet. Crazy ppl
The writing is on the wall, cash is King!
I just did myaccoutns and I’ve spent just under 250usd in back charges..
on average any transaction is around 4%
cash withdrawal is 3% previously 2.5%. check visa charges 3usd on 50 starlink payment…that a ridiculous 6% on bancabc visa card.i give up
same for dstv
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Nicolas Miailhe
Cyrus HODES
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Zimbos craft laws without foresight. Its all about can we make money today hence these SIs keep raining on us. NOW the law that was intended to clip Ecocash’s wings has actually turned it into a monopoly- talk about cursed blessings. At what point does econent start flexing its zimswitch-like muscles(you know its going to happen the infrastructure is there).