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

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

By Hazel Ndebele

THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has amended the National Payment Systems Act to prevent close to five million mobile money subscribers from losing their money should network operators (MNOs) collapse, an official has said.

This comes as the central bank has also expressed concern that the rapid growth of mobile money banking in the country has become a threat to the traditional banking system.

According to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz), the total number of active mobile money subscriptions increased by 42,5 % to reach 4,7 million in 2017 from 3,3 million in 2016. According to the report, mobile money has provided an effective alternative for making payments in the midst of the liquidity crisis.

The country has three MNOs, namely Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, Telecel Zimbabwe and NetOne.

Photo courtesy of Simon Berry.