• Mobile Money: Zim banks moan about unfair competition from mobile operators

    A report today by financial news and analysis service FinX says the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe have proposed that mobile money services be included in new banking reforms for the country. This, the bankers say, would create a level playing field in an sector facing significant disruption from mobile phone operators.

  • 2012 roundup: The year in review

    The year kicked off with one of the largest ISPs in Zimbabwe ZOL, announcing that it had been acquired by Liquid Telecom, a move which resulted in the Econet Wireless Group cementing its position as Zimbabwe’s largest telecoms firm.

  • Report: The Jumpstart Panel Discussion on Tech Entrepreneurship

    Last week, the final Jumpstart event of the year was held at Cresta Jameson in Harare. The event was a panel discussion where we invited some of the judges of our annualJumpstart Challenge (it’s just in the second year actually) and local telecoms executives from Econet, the largest telecoms operator in Zimbabwe. The event was…

  • Enterprise mobility; what to consider

    There is mobility, and there is enterprise mobility. Arguably, over the past 4 years mobility in Zimbabwe has seen an impressive and steady growth; we have had new technologies, mobile broadband, more companies, and cheaper broadband prices. All this has opened up a lot of doors, and a lot of opportunities for individuals and companies…

  • TN Bank becomes Econet subsidiary as Nyambirai sells stake

    Tawanda Nyambirai, Lifestyle Holdings CEO and Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Chairman, announced today that he has accepted an offer from Econet Wireless to buy him out of TN bank. Speaking at a press briefing today Nyambirai said he will be selling his stake in the bank he founded in exchange for shareholding in Econet Wireless. As…

  • Zimbabwe’s 2012 ICT Achievers Awards: The winners

    The winners of the ICT Ministry organized ICT Achievers awards were announced last week Friday at a function held at Cresta Lodge in Harare. Now in their 3rd year the awards were presented by ICT Minister, Nelson Chamisa, and Thokozani Khuphe, Zimbabwe’s deputy prime minister.

  • #263Chat: Tweets on tech and tech entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe

    Earlier this week I was guest on the weekly #263Chat discussion hosted by Nigel Mugamu where the discussion was centered on tech in Zimbabwe; the state of, the challenges, possible solutions, opportunities, funding for entrepreneurs and other issues. #263Chat is a really interesting way to have a realtime virtual gathering and discuss important common issues.…

  • A brief and some pictures from the Techzim ePayments Forum

    Yesterday, we held the ePayments Forum in Harare yesterday where we had representatives from Visa, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, Zimswitch, Touch Retail and Zimbabwe revenue authority presenting on some keys issues in the ePayments space in Zimbabwe.

  • Sponsor Profile: Cardpro

    Consider all the plastic cards that you carry in your wallet. You rely on these cards to make purchases and withdraw funds, prove your identity and enter restricted facilities, place phone calls and access medical care, and the list goes on. As smart card, biometric and other new technologies evolve, the power and prevalence of…

  • Sponsor profile: The Paynet and Autopay divisions of Payserv Group

    The Payserv Group is Zimbabwe’s leading provider of Payments and Business Process Outsourcing services targeted at financial and related sectors. The group’s main business units comprises of Paynet Zimbabwe and Autopay Zimbabwe.

  • Everything you need to know about Zimswitch’s Vpayments gateway

    Zimswitch, a national switching company recently introduced an internet payment gateway service called Vpayments. Being a financial switch basically means they provider interconnection between their member banks. Zimswitch member banks account for about 95% of the 1.5 million banked population in Zimbabwe. After hyperinflation and dollarisation, many Zimbabweans moved away from the banks, but now…

  • List of Zimbabwean web start-ups formed in the last 4 years

    This is a follow-up article to my post Why most Zimbabwean Start-ups fail. After reading some of the comments and discussions, I felt the need to share with everyone the list of Start-ups I compiled during my research for the first article. Below is the list, I hope it will help you in whatever way…

  • Announcing Zimbabwe’s first ePayments Forum

    Convenient payment options are a critical and often cited sticking point for commercial and economic development. Numerous discussions have taken place around the need for increased electronic payment methods as a means to overcome time, socio-economic, and logistical constraints amongst others.

  • Easi simplifies prepaid electronic vending

    You’ve probably seen the Easi logo on the right in a number of retail outlets in the country. The company has entered the market to provide a South African designed solution to simplify the electronic vending of prepaid products. So far Easi has signed up all mobile network operators in Zimbabwe, internet providers like Broadacom and Africom,…

  • Econet interim results: US $78 million in after tax profits

    We just came from an analysts briefing in Harare where Econet Wireless Zimbabwe presented their interim results ending 31 August 2012. We live tweeted the briefing on our @Techzim stream. The one thing clear strategically at the briefing was the role of EcoCash in the new Econet. In fact, the CEO Douglas Mboweni, even said…

  • Mobile operators need to build online marketplaces

    There are two main problems facing anyone who wants to conduct business online,  namely: Payments and Distribution. The payment problem When one needs to make online transactions, they must to have a MasterCard/Visa card or PayPal, or any other method of online payment.  None of these are easy to come by for the majority of internet…

  • Telecel reveals they killed off the Skwama mobile money service

    Remember Skwama? It’s the mobile money transfer service which Telecel Zimbabwe started introducing back at the end of 2010. It was launched in January 2011 but before long, its ads and general branding disappeared almost completely. We just learnt the gradual disappearance was deliberate as a decision had been made to let Skwama “die a natural…

  • A technological call to arms – let’s imitate to progress

    What has been will be again, What has been done will be done again; There is nothing new under the sun – Ecclesiastes 1:9 I doubt that King Solomon could have imagined the technological strides that mankind would go on to make when he wrote those words, but part of his wisdom still applies today.…

  • How much mobile phone airtime street vendors earn a month

    When we attended the launch of Econet’s Green Kiosks two days ago, we were particularly fascinated learning some interesting mobile airtime sales figures from a lady who is currently operating one of these Green Kiosks. Her name is Jessica Kokerai but she told us she’s known in her community of Warren Park as Amai Blessing…

  • Econet Solar to launch community Green Kiosks

    Econet Wireless Zimbabwe will today launch what the company calls the Green Kiosk; basically a kiosk that sells Econet mobile phone accessories, airtime, EcoCash mobile money services, and allows Econet customers to charge their mobile phones for free using solar energy. The launch will take place later today at the company’s headquarters in Harare. From…

  • Zimbabwe is more than ready for e-commerce and online shopping

    This guest article was authored by Prosper Chikomo, an internet entrepreneur and author of Turning Iron into Gold: Golden Opportunities: How to Spot Them, Create Them, Make Money from Them, and How Not to Miss Them (Available on Amazon.com)  A doubtful Zimbabwean-banker asked me the question, “Is Zimbabwe ready for e-commerce? Did you do any market research…

  • ZimSwitch services update: Internet payments, Mobile Money, mCommerce & more

    We have received a much needed update from ZimSwitch on stuff they have been working on these past several months. The last time we covered ZimSwitch in some depth is when they announced the signing on of 12 financial institutions to their ZimSwitch Shared Services (ZSS). They also announced then that the company was working…

  • The despairing state of ecommerce in Zimbabwe

    I have been following with much enthusiasm articles and debates generated thereof on the Techzim blog as it pertains to Internet usage in Zimbabwe. Not only being passionate about it, but also having done some considerable project work and brainstorming on this subject even in the early days of the Internet in Zimbabwe as far…

  • Econet’s move to Comviva to give Zimbabwe e-commerce jetpacks

    This guest article was authored by Prosper Chikomo, an internet entrepreneur and author of Turning Iron into Gold: Golden Opportunities: How to Spot Them, Create Them, Make Money from Them, and How Not to Miss Them (Available on Amazon.com)  As great as Pattern Matched Technologies’ (PMT) platform is, the move to Comviva’s platform will certainly help push…

  • Econet adds chat service EcoChat to its Call Home package in South Africa

    They may not be riding the unlimited calls wagon that the other local network providers are, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t innovating. Last week, Econet’s South African based technical partner, Pattern Matched, announced the launch of EcoChat, a new service that allows Econet subscribers on roaming to chat with friends and family back home…

  • The National ICT review, a participant’s view

    Yesterday, 24 July 2012, the National ICT Policy consultative meeting was held in Bulawayo and it was a somewhat charged affair. The man running the show on behalf of the Ministry of Information & Communication Technology (MICT) is a consultant from the Ministry of Justice, a Mr. Mukarakate. He is a lawyer by profession and…

  • Lendme in landmark $1.8M deal

    A while ago we wrote about Lendme.co.zw and now they have announced an exciting deal worth US$1.8 million. This was revealed by Lendme’s founder Michael Charangwa, who explained that Lendme (UK) have signed the $1.8 million deal with Buildvest (Pvt) Ltd a Zimbabwean registered micro-lender. The development means that Lendme will now have added capacity…

  • FBC finally launches Mobile Moola. Announces MasterCard Acquirer status

    In September last year, we posted that FBC had introduced a new mobile banking service called Mobile Moola. They had and hadn’t. The advertising for the product died down and a visit to the bank’s head office in Harare to find out more about it only yielded that they weren’t ready to start talking about…

  • SmartPay sets out to extend financial services to the unbanked via a card

    Yesterday we attended a press briefing by a new payments company called SmartPay. The company has launched a financial services system that users can access using a smart card. In the background, the SmartPay system is basically a switching system enabling financial institutions to receive deposits, users to withdraw money, merchants to process payments, organisations…

  • Lendme Zimbabwe launches, introduces eVouchers

    Lendme, the mobile airtime credit credit startup we wrote about last month, launched officially this week. This means the platform is now available for users in Zimbabwe to borrow airtime. Before launch, users could only register accounts. Lendme works pretty much how it was featured in our first article except for one additional feature; they…