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

Thursday, October 4, 2018

By Chris Donkin

Zimbabwe changed the way it taxes mobile money from a fixed fee to a percentage of the value of each transaction, as the state eyes a greater share of the proceeds from use of the burgeoning technology.

In a statement outlining the country’s new fiscal policies, finance minister Mthuli Ncube announced the “money transfer tax”, which covers all online cash payments. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe figures show 755 million mobile money transactions were processed in 2017 to a combined transaction value of ZWD18 billion ($49.7 million).

Photo courtesy of Erik (HASH) Hersman.