• Man in the mirror: What Econet can learn from being excluded by ZESA

    Econet is unhappy about being excluded by ZESA from selling prepaid electricity tokens via the EcoCash mobile money platform. It doesn’t make sense to them how the government won’t let them provide convenience the market needs. The issue has come up in more than half of the conversations I’ve had with Econet executives these past 3 or so months. It’s…

  • Yo App: Simple, stupid, silly, useless, fun and popular

    To paraphrase the Bible: There is an App for everything under the sun and an App for every activity under heaven. There is an App to App your friends with, there are exercise Apps, thousands of Bible apps, dictionaries, movie Apps and there is even an App that allows you to share leftovers with your…

  • Open mobile money ecosystems – inevitable but not urgent for African operators

    I had the had the thrilling and awesome privilege to chair the second day of the 7th edition of the Mobile Money and Digital Payments Africa 2014, in Johannesburg at the end of May. Different stakeholders in the mobile money and digital payments industry across Africa and beyond converged at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in…

  • WeChat is now a mobile money transfer app as well, but in China only for now

    WeChat is many things already. So much more than WhatsApp, the app it started as a clone off. It’s so much more this anti-WhatsApp strength has actually been cited as a biggest weakness. But that’s not stopping the Chinese based messaging startup from becoming even more. The latest is that Chinese users of the app can now use it…

  • The Netone-ZESA marriage- Pride goeth before a fall

    A must-be-gleeful NetOne was granted an unexpected boost ahead of its competitors in the ZESA prepaid electricity retailing facility. They are the only MNO awarded the opportunity to sell prepaid electricity tokens. No surprises there if you have bothered to read a bit of ZIMASSET. I warn NetOne not to celebrate prematurely though. I have…

  • MTN launches Visa card, Zimbos to send money home cheaply

    Exciting news out of South Africa advise that MTN SA have launched a Visa card for their Mobile Money uses, following in suite of mobile payments pioneer M-PESA who did something similar way back in 2011! Orange also has a similar service. MTN has brought convenience to its users allowing them to make purchases at Visa…

  • Finally, NetOne’s OneWallet mobile money subscriber stats. It’s 200,000 active

    It’s been a struggle getting NetOne to give the statistics of the users of its mobile money service, OneWallet. That the service hasn’t been a runaway success has of course never been secret. NetOne executives have themselves admitted that the requirement for subscribers to swap in sim cards for higher capacity ones has caused a depressed uptake. Just…

  • The Mobile Application for ALL your network USSD codes

    If you’re anything like us here at the office, we have a hard time trying to remember what code it is to top up airtime on each network, send a ‘call me back’, activate missed call alert, buy Facebook and/or WhatsApp bundles, etc. The mobile networks don’t make it any easier as on a weekly…

  • Latest Techzim Podcast: ZESA loadshedding,

    In this episode of the Techzim Podcast that recorded earlier this week we discussed In the power load-shedding by ZESA and how it affects startups, the new EcoCash Diaspora product they have partner WorldRemit to deliver, Mobile Money APIs, electronic payments in general, Paynow and finally the DSTV world cup blockage. Enjoy and lets discuss in the…

  • Telecel partners ZimSwitch for TeleCash Gold Card. Introduces POS & ATM cashouts

    When TeleCash launched back in January this year the company spoke of a Telecash debit card. Spoke way too early actually as the “card” or its concept wasn’t visible except in the press releases. Anyway, the good news is that it’s here, or at least very close to being a reality, and some things about it are…

  • The Kombi ban, if it goes through, is an opportunity for mobile money operators

    When Econet introduced the option for people to use the EcoCash mobile money to pay for their kombi (name for minibus in Zimbabwe) fares, the unanswered question was if the service would penetrate the highly chaotic public transport. The question was eventually answered ofcourse; the kombi chaos was not about to be disrupted. What is the chaos you may ask. Essentially, the…

  • Three reasons why PayPal won’t work in Zimbabwe

    As Zimbabweans we have been a deprived lot. If it is not one nation introducing Visas so that we can’t visit them, then it is another banning the use of our ETDs (Emergency Travel Documents) when going to visit. Our misfortunes have also been prominent online. Facebook did not allow us to advertise to followers…

  • Telecel launches TeleCash API. Invites developers, merchants to integrate

    Exciting week of payments indeed! We can exclusively reveal that TeleCash, the mobile money service provided by Telecel Zimbabwe, has a live API and the mobile operator is now inviting developers and merchants to come integrate. We got confirmation today from the company’s Mobile Financial Services Director, Nkosinathi Ncube. Currently, Webdev (the company behind Paynow) is working on integrating…

  • ZESA adds TelOne, Agribank to electricity coupon agents. Excludes Econet, Telecel

    The mobile payments revolution of the past three years has brought unparalleled convenience to Zimbabwe. Just as it has in many African countries. It has meant significantly less hassle in moving money (and therefore value) between people and between people and business. Everything from paying your water bill, pay TV subscription, insurance and even school fees. ZESA, however, chooses…

  • PayPal now available in Zimbabwe. But not for merchants and peer to peer

    This, it turns out, is a payments week! It’s official, PayPal is coming to Zimbabwe starting tomorrow, 17 June 2014. The announcement was made today by Rupert Keeley, the executive in charge PayPal’s Europe Middle East and Africa region, in an interview he gave to Reuters. PayPal will be opening up its services to Zimbabwe and…

  • I deserve money for my idea: The folly of developers

    An advent enthusiast in mobile financial services I was more than eager to hear developers and VAS innovators alike fire away at Econet (Ecocash) for their “reluctance” to open up their network to applications and VAS at the recent Broadband Forum. Not surprisingly was Econet’s calculated responses since they have had to answer to accusations…

  • Paynow, a new Zimbabwean internet payments gateway. Simplicity at its best

    If you tried to buy a ticket to the Broadband Forum event that we held last week, you probably noticed you could buy online, and that we were accepting EcoCash, ZimSwitch Vpayments and even VISA. And it worked seamlessly both for us and the people paying. We were using the new internet payments platform by Webdev called Paynow. The platform has been live for…

  • Econet investigated for anti-competitive behaviour in mobile money business

    A report in the Herald today says Econet Wireless Zimbabwe is being investigation by the Competition and and Tariffs Commission (CTC) for anti-competitive business practices around it’s relationship with local financial institutions on mobile money and mobile banking. The issue is really that of the banks wanting neutral access to the Econet’s network subscribers via regular USSD (and…

  • eLearning Solutions to launch mobile learning solution mCourser

    Local digital learning solutions provider eLearning Solutions says that it shall be launching a mobile eLearning platform called mCourser next week Tuesday. At a pre-launch media briefing the platform was demoed and questions on certain aspects of mCourser were addressed. The platform offers learning material for primary school pupils (Maths and Science) and high school…

  • Textacash shows growth in a competitive mobile money space

    Mobile money has redefined financial services locally and every serious service provider in the industry has tried to get in on the action. Local banks were relatively late adopters of m-commerce but despite this some of these institutions have managed to make remarkable progress even in the face of steam rolling competition from the likes…

  • A comparison Zimbabwean mobile money tariffs

    The local mobile money transfer market has been going through a number of changes with three players joining the fray in the past year. With such a field the most common area of competitive differentiation is pricing. We have put together the list of mobile money transfer rates for the mobile payment services offered by…

  • Tel One phone bills payable through Telecash bill option

    Today Telecel announced the introduction of a Tel One bill payment facility through Telecash. This new service is meant to enhance the appeal of the mobile money service, which since its introduction earlier this year has been focused on adding merchant services and functionality that can compete with the market runaway leader, Ecocash. The Tel…

  • Zimpost needs to embrace tech to stay relevant

    According to News in the Herald local postal services firm, Zimpost, recorded a 15% slump in revenue for the five months to May 2014 which has been attributed to the tough economic environment. The same article carries comments from Zimpost MD, Douglas Zimbango, on how their service line has been made obsolete by technology. Unless you’ve been…

  • Telecash agents and merchants total increases to over 3000

    Telecel has just announced that its mobile money service Telecash has increased the number of its agents and merchants to more than 3000. This is close to double the number of agents that they had when the service was launched in January this year. At the time of its launch Telecash had 1600 agents, a number…

  • Mobile operators MTN, Orange, Millicom & Safaricom, see opportunity in tech startups

    Yesterday, Orange Telecom, a French owned mobile telecoms company with operations in a number of African countries, announced the launch of a startup incubator in Niger. The incubator is the third the company has launched after similar ones in Niger and Mauritius. Earlier in the month, Safaricom’s CEO, Bob Collymore told Bloomberg TV Africa that they are…

  • Zipcash money transfer service expanding into West Africa

    Zimpost’s money transfer services, Zipcash, which was launched in October last year, will be setting up operations in West Africa with arrangements in Nigeria being finalised. This was mentioned by Zimpost managing director Douglas Zimbango, according to an article in the Herald. This regional expansion of the postal money transfer service started off with countries…

  • Computer Society of Zim hosts Emerging ICT Entrepreneurs series

    On Tuesday evening the Computer Society of Zimbabwe‘s Harare chapter hosted the society’s monthly event at the Jameson Hotel in the capital city. The theme for this month’s event was Zim Asset : Opportunities for the ICT Sector – Emerging ICT Entrepreneurs Series. At the event a presentation on the Zim ASSET national economic blueprint…

  • A list of Econet’s gripes with Zimbabwe’s telecoms business ecosystem

    Despite investing a lot of money ($1.2 billion) according to the company, Econet says they continue to operate in an ecosystem where they face needless challenges from competition, lacking supporting infrastructure and legislation. The company has always kind complained about these ecosystem issues, but yesterday they got a chance to pour their heart out at a parliamentary committee. Here’s, according…

  • Nettcash Mobile Money Services is launched with an innovative set of features

    After more than a year spent building anticipation, Nettcash has officially launched its mobile money service. As most people had noticed for more than a year now, Nettcash has established an online presence with a website that gave an outline of their products (albeit with a coming soon tag) as well as a subtle offline…

  • ZIMSEC needs to do more on the ICT front

      When compared with other government affiliated entities, ZIMSEC is not doing all that bad on the ICT front. They have a website, poorly designed with images that jump up and fill the a good half of the page and stand in the way of navigation as it may be, but the site is comparable…

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