Prophet Makandiwa urges congregants to use EcoCash for tithes

The United Family International Church (UFIC) led by Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa is urging members to use the Econet Wireless-run Ecocash platform.

Members of UFIC now use EcoCash to pay their "love offerings", UFIC partnership and UFIC tithes using three different bill codes.

Not to be outdone are churches such as FM Grace City Centre, AFM Houghton Park, Faith Ministries, Faith Ministries, New Life Covenant, One Way Ministries and ZAOGA BCT.

Only one traditional church, Baptist Union of Zimbabwe is not using the latest mobile money transfer technology, according to the Econet website.

Econet introduced its mobile payment solutions in September 2011 which enables the telecom giant's customers to complete simple financial transactions on their phones.

Rival NetOne followed suit with One wallet  while Telecel Zimbabwe recently launched Telecash.

Data from telecoms industry regulator POTRAZ shows that the number of mobile subscribers in the country is now more than 13,5 million against a population of 13.06 million.

Econet dominates the industry with 8.5 million subscribers, followed by Telecel at 2.54 million and the government-owned NetOne which has 2.45 million.