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

By Tawanda Karombo

Mobile money platforms have been banned in Zimbabwe as the country’s local currency continues to lose value, with authorities desperately hoping to arrest the decline. But the move has left subscribers and users stranded in an economy which sees a huge portion of transactions flow through mobile money platforms due to long-term cash shortages at the banks.

Zimbabwe’s monetary challenges, which include escalating inflation and a crippling shortage of foreign exchange, are the clearest indicators of the country’s spiraling economic decline. In 2019, the country banned the domestic use of foreign currencies and re-introduced the Zimdollar which had been dropped in 2009 years after spiking hyperinflation and the adoption of the US Dollar under former leader, Robert Mugabe.

Photo courtesy of ZeroOne.