EcoCash, a mobile money service of the South African telecom Econet Wireless, recently suffered a 2-day interruption of its services in Zimbabwe. While some customers could not access their mobile wallets at all, others reportedly had money deducted from their accounts after receiving messages indicating their transactions had failed. Econet cited a scheduled hardware update as the cause of the problem.
As of 2017, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe reports that 90 percent of the country’s financial transactions are digital. This follows heavy government promotion digital financial services in response to the cash shortages that followed the country’s discontinuation of the Zimbabwean dollar in 2009.
Launched in 2011, EcoCash allows Econet customers in Zimbabwe to use mobile phones to pay bills, make retail purchases, deposit money into bank accounts, and remit money to Botswana and South Africa. From 2012 through mid-2018, the platform processed transactions totaling USD 23 billion. As of June 2018, EcoCash had 8 million customers in Zimbabwe.
Founded in 1993, Econet Wireless is a telecommunications group with operations in 17 countries in Africa, East Asia, Europe and South America. It offers mobile telephone, fixed telephone, internet and satellite services.
By Nicholas Galimberti, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Quartz Africa article
https://qz.com/1321152/zimbabwes-ecocash-mobile-money-crash-has-people-worried/
EcoCash background
https://www.ecocash.co.zw/about
Econet Wireless background
http://www.econetwireless.com/about_econet.php
Reuters article
https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5N1FO18D
NewsdzeZimbabwe article
http://www.newsdzezimbabwe.co.uk/2018/07/ecocash-crashes-thousands-stranded.html
MicroCapital Brief; August 11, 2014; Econet’s EcoCash, MasterCard to Provide Debit Cards to Mobile Money Users in Zimbabwe
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-econets-ecocash-mastercard-to-provide-debit-cards-to-mobile-money-users-in-zimbabwe/
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