HARARE: The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has given Zimbabwe’s biggest telecommunications company, Econet Wireless, the greenlight to start cross-border mobile money remittances to Zimbabwe.
EcoCash is an innovative mobile payment solution run by Strive Masiyiwa’s Econet Wireless. Under the recently SARB-licenced dispensation, the EcoCash platform will now enable expat Zimbabweans to send money back home.
The money can be sent straight into Econet’s mobile money wallets in Zimbabwe. EcoCash already caters for financial transactions such as sending money intra-network, buying prepaid airtime and paying for goods and services.
“EcoCash and its South African partners have finally secured approval from the South Africa Reserve Bank to start a cross border remittance service from South Africa,” Econet Wireless said this week.
The mobile company, however, said it would take several weeks for the service to be fully established, adding that it would “be up and running by the end of next month”.
“The approval, which took over 18 months to secure, will come as a major relief for Zimbabweans working in South Africa, as it takes out the hassles and challenges of sending money to relatives. It will be as accessible, quick and convenient as making a ‘cash-in’ to EcoCash in Zimbabwe,” the telecoms firm said.
The company predicted that the new service would “fundamentally alter the pattern of remittances”, hoping that the innovative “micro-remittance” solution would “stimulate increased remittances into Zimbabwe which will help ease liquidity challenges in the economy”.
