Econet slashes EcoCash payment fees

ECONET Wireless has reduced EcoCash tariffs on all merchant payments by up to 50 percent with effect from yesterday, to reduce cost of transacting on the payment platform.

The reduction, Econet said, was aimed at making it less expensive and convenient for customers to transact using EcoCash, which had become the most used system when transacting in Zimbabwe owing to the current cash shortage.

Econet Wireless, the largest mobile telecoms company in Zimbabwe, says its mobile money service, EcoCash, has processed over $23 billion transfers over five years.

A third of this figure was transacted in the last 12 months driven by prevailing cash shortages. The mobile money transfer service has over 6,8 million mobile customers. Econet says it has over 10 million registered subscribers.

The reduction of EcoCash merchant tariffs, Econet said, would see customers being charged transaction fees as low as $0,01 for purchases starting from as little as $1.

Econet Wireless chief executive officer Mr Douglas Mboweni said: "We are inspired to transform lives of our customers through the use of technology. In view of liquidity challenges, EcoCash continues to give customers the convenience, security, as well as affordability to buy goods and services without the worry of accessing cash," he said.

"Our vision is to see a situation where our customers can buy literally everything using EcoCash from payment of utility bills, hospital bills, purchase of groceries, fuel, school fees, and at the vendors' markets," Mr Mboweni added.

He said he was grateful that Zimbabwe was already moving in that transition towards a truly cashless society. The reduction of merchant fees by EcoCash comes at a time when customers are increasingly using their mobile wallets to transact through merchant payment solutions.

This increase in cashless transactions aligns with the current cash shortages in the market. General manager for EcoCash Natalie Jabangwe-Morris said, "We are ever thankful to our customers for their continued support.

Our 'Zero Fees Thursdays' where we were not charging our customers merchant fees ended on 30 June 2017 and the reduction of merchant fees is part of our vision to continue giving our customers value for their money," Mrs Jabangwe said.

Econet Wireless is Zimbabwe's biggest mobile phone network ahead of State owned NetOne, which has 5,8 million customers and Telecel Zimbabwe with 4,7 million.