• Dear people, why are we still complaining about EcoLife?

    So, everytime we post an article about a new Econet value added service, it’s followed complaints from some readers who apparently feel cheated that Econet ended the EcoLife service. Some even go to the extreme of complaining that Econet owes them Ecolife money. Take yesterday for example when we posted the Econet to provide loans via EcoCash story.…

  • EcoFarmer: Econet’s 4 pillared approach to tech for agriculture

    Even though at launch, the most visible and touted component of EcoFarmer was the micro-insurance, the service is more than just that. The company discussed in detail the EcoFarmer offering at an event we attended a few weeks ago in Harare. The event, organised by the Market Linkages Association, brought together tech startups in agric,…

  • Kenya’s Huduma initiative should be a lesson to Zim’s own government.

    One Nigerian author once said”, It is not wise to cross a civil servant.” Most of us have at one time or another been a victim of bureaucracy (angry civil servants) which for some strange reason almost always involves the government on the offending side- be it the local or national government.  The Kenyan government…

  • Here are the AfricaCom 2013 award winners

    So the winners of the Oscars of Africa’s telecoms sector, the AfricaCom awards, have been announced. The awards are in their 6th year and they are basically designed to acknowledge players in the sector that have made some outstanding achievements in the year. Of some relevance to Zimbabwe, and therefore noteworthy, are: the EcoCash platform…

  • Some Telecash branding; apparently “It’s easy with Telecash” mobile money

    So far Telecel has been unwilling to say much about their soon to launch Telecash mobile money service but we get bits to piece together every now and again from a few generous souls. Today was such a day and we got to learn a bit about the branding and messaging that will likely carry the…

  • Econet’s Home Power Station now in 2,000 homes across Zimbabwe #AfricaCom

    Remember the Econet Home Power Station(HPS)?  It’s the mother device of Econet Wireless’s solar company, Econet Solar International (ESI). It first surfaced at the COP17 Summit in late 2011 with the promise of a commercial launch we expected to have seen by now. At least trials reported to have been taking place last year suggested so…

  • NetOne re-launches OneWallet. Will it stick this time?

    NetOne re-launched a revamped OneWallet product at their Kopje Plaza offices in Harare this afternoon. The OneWallet product was previously launched in 2011 and this re-launch is in response to a re-engineered platform that has just gone live. Here’s all that you need to know about the revamped OneWallet product: The new The most touted…

  • NetOne to re-launch OneWallet, introduces off-net money transfers

    Information we’ve just received confirms that NetOne is the company running teaser ads in the print press in preparation for a re-launch of their OneWallet mobile money service. The re-launch, a source tells us, comes with the introduction of transfers to other networks. So far, OneWallet subscribers could only transfer money to other NetOne subscribers.…

  • Telecel’s Telecash will be powered by the Obopay mobile money platform

    Reliable information we have received from sources says Telecel will be using the Obopay platform for their Telecash mobile money service. This is contrary to market information that has been all along suggesting they’d be using the Mahindra Comviva platform that Econet uses. The reasoning so far was that Telecel was working to match Econet’s…

  • Telecel’s mobile money is called Telecash, and it launches November (Exclusive)

    So yesterday when Telecel called a press briefing we were almost certain the company would announce their new mobile money service. It’s been known for a while now that Telecel is working on a product to compete head on in the market with fellow mobile operators Econet (their EcoCash product) and NetOne (OneWallet). They didn’t…

  • Press release: New services begin to drive Econet growth says CEO

    New services such as EcoCash, broadband, and EcoFarmer have begun to drive Econet Wireless Zimbabwe’s growth as its traditional voice revenues are maturing. Speaking at the presentation of the half year results for August 2013, Econet Wireless CEO Douglas Mboweni said the company’s focus was to speed up innovations aimed at creating new sources of…

  • Econet posts $70.56 million half year profits (August 2013)

    Econet Wireless today announced their unaudited financial results for the half year to 31 August 2013. The telecoms and financial services company, which is the largest mobile operator in Zimbabwe by subscribers numbers and value of business, posted a profit after tax of $70.56 million for the half year. The after tax profit is down…

  • Zimbabwe’s second largest media house announces launch of online classifieds

    Traditionally, newspapers owned classifieds. Some newspaper consumers (desperate home and job seekers) even bought (well, still buy) the whole paper just to look at the classifieds section. On the internet though, classifieds as a business was taken from the paper companies. Internet startups, internet only startups to be specific, proactively built brands, huge audiences and businesses…

  • Zimpost launches Zipcash, local & international electronic money tansfer

    Zimbabwe’s government owned postal services company, Zimpost, yesterday launched launched an electronic money transfer service known as Zipcash. The service, according to a report by Finx, allows for domestic and international money transfers. The new service replaces Zimposts existing money order services which basically entailed a lot of paperwork for sending and notification of transfers.…

  • Zimfon’s response on the legality of the company’s VoIP services

    Yesterday, we published an article in which we had comments from POTRAZ Deputy Director General, Alfred Marisa, on the legality of the recently launched Zimfon VoIP service. Legality in terms of meeting Zimbabwe’s telecoms regulation requirements. He essentially said Zimfon is not compliance with regulatory requirements. Below is Zimfon’s response on the matter. Sent to us…

  • Zimbabwe: My applications wish list

    Tomorrow applications developers battle it out at the TechZim / ZOL Surge and start-up challenge. If I were to have my way and incarnate a stanza of magic code to generate the most useful applications for the moment, I would fulfil the wish list below. Ecocash App – I have said this and I will…

  • Econet announces EcoLife supreme court victory against Trustco

    Econet announced today that the Supreme Court has ruled in their favour in the matter against Namibian technology company Trustco, in the Supreme Court. The two companies have been fighting in court since mid 2011 following disagreements over the running of the EcoLife service. The victory is more one of principle and closure as it…

  • Zimbabwe apps review: Pay4App internet payments

    Some very innovative people have sat down on this one. See, the relevancy of an app to the populace is not necessarily in the cutting edge technology (that’s for tech people), it’s also in the usability, the ability to accomplish the task in as simple a way as possible, as economic and just as secure.…

  • Why, outside Zimbabwe (& Kenya), mobile money in Africa hasn’t succeeded

    Whenever I’m in a foreign country in the region, I try to observe and ask questions about mobile stuff. Mobile money especially is a big interest and the one thing I have wanted to understand more is how mobile money hasn’t been as remarkably successful in these other countries in the region, as it has…

  • Zim startup launches mobile money management desktop app, Capu

    A local startup has launched a desktop based mobile money management tool called Capu (short for Cash Application: Universal). Universal in that the tool can be used to manage transactions any mobile money service locally. The app, which is Windows based, so far allows users to manage their Textacash and EcoCash transactions more conveniently.

  • Afrocoin launches in a few days. What do they bring to diaspora remittances?

    Remember the new international money transfer startup called Afrocoin that we wrote about back in June? Then, they were just a profile on Crunchbase and a few screenshots here and there promising the service would be live in a couple of months. They are here. Afrocoin is launching, tomorrow their website countdown says. The startup got…

  • Zimbabwe apps review: C2 Media’s TelOne directory

    C2 Media has made some serious strides in the area of mobile applications. They have developed applications for iOS, Android and biNu in addition to other custom software design & development. They have a noticeably long track record of some renowned corporates and small companies that they have worked with.

  • Econet announces EcoFarmer, insurance for smallholder farmers

    Yesterday, we exclusively reported that Econet was working to launch a new insurance service for smallholder farmers called EcoFarmer. Econet just issued a press statement announcing the product. Our report yesterday covers most of what the product is but here’s the new information from the statement: Econet is implementing this in partnership with Seed Co,…

  • Telecel Zimbabwe extends the Mega Bonus Reloaded cheap calls promo

    To refer to the calls as ‘cheap’ is of course in the context of a Zimbabwe that ranks close to the top on the list of crazy high mobile tariffs in Africa. But yes, the Telecel promo that changed the tariffs game in the local telecoms industry, leading to an ugly chain of competitive – or anti-competitive…

  • Startup launches Zimbabwe’s first online local domain registration service

    The difficult process of registering local domains in Zimbabwe is something we have written about extensively here on Techzim. It’s something we feel passionate about for the simple reason that allowing people to easily register local domains easily means more people can try more stuff online easily. Imagine therefore our delight finding out a team…

  • ZimSwitch: an update on the ZimSwitch Shared Services (ZSS) platform

    The article below is a statement issued by ZimSwitch on the state and progress made with the ZimSwitch Shared Services payments switching platform. The statement was issued to us as part of the research that we made over the past few weeks for the article Zimbabwe: Of banks, Mobile Money and EcoCash. It has been a busy year…

  • TanaMe, a new player on the Zimbabwean VoIP app market

    A new Zimbabwean VoIP mobile app called TanaMe has found its way to a number of app stores. The app was developed by Tana Communications a family owned business based in Mutare and led by Tawanda Chitaka. TanaMe comes with a number of useful features like SMS, Chat on multiple IM Accounts (Facebook, Yahoo and…

  • How to get started making your own online store

    There has been a number of discussions on the issue of ecommerce is Zimbabwe. Some have predicted its success and some were sceptical that e-commerce will experience significant adoption in Zimbabwe. Be that as it may, let’s put all the debate aside and let’s go about creating an online store. After all there is no…

  • Some people DON’T like these promotional SMSs

    I was really hoping my phone would buzz and display that famous message, “EcoCash: Transfer Confirmation. $$$ from…”. I really needed that money and then I heard my phone buzz. With much enthusiasm I pressed the middle button and to my distress again it was a promotional SMS from Econet. I took a very little…

  • Assessing Zimbabwe’s readiness for eCommerce

    Over the past 2 years there has been an increasing amount of talk on the readiness of Zimbabwe to adopt e-commerce. A number of articles published either imply or affirm that Zimbabwe is now a ripe market for e-commerce.  Well, the truth is, this is not a simple matter to conclude. E-commerce is a tool…

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