NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, October 13, 2016

EcoCash ta! To the rescue

Mobile payments have become an increasingly important and viable option in Zimbabwe’s payments landscape due, in part, to the prevailing cash shortages and government’s quest to enhance financial inclusion.

Financial sector spotlight with Omen Muza

However, standard USSD-based mobile payments are slow and unwieldy in retail set-ups, so EcoCash introduced debit cards linked to the EcoCash wallet, but still, many sellers/merchants do not have access to infrastructure that facilitates electronic payments, which means that many consumers still can’t pay via these cards.

In order to get around this problem, in early December 2015, Econet launched EcoCash ta!, a mobile payments solution that allows Zimbabweans to transact by simply tapping their phone on an NFC-enabled device [near field communication] when making a purchase, and the amount is automatically deducted from the purchaser’s EcoCash wallet.

However, the points of transaction costs and affordability of appropriate infrastructure continue to be of concern to users and merchants alike.