Econet, Zimbabwe’s largest telecommunications company, is set to become a key player in the country’s financial services sector, thanks to its mobile money transfer service, EcoCash.
Launched in 2011 and modeled on Safaricom’s M-Pesa that has been a huge hit in Kenya, EcoCash will boost financial inclusion in Zimbabwe and accelerate the move towards a cashless society.
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According to a report from the brokers IHSecurities, access to financial services is even more limited in Zimbabwe than it was in Kenya at M-Pesa’s launch in 2007.
"The penetration of bank branches at 0.032 per 1,000 people and 240 bank accounts per 1,000 adults at a national level speaks to a high level of financial exclusion. However, an estimated 0.0055 bank branches per 100,000 people in the country’s rural areas speaks even more clearly to the extreme level of financial exclusion in the country’s rural areas," IHSecurities reported.
As the most recent development of Econet, the EcoCash debit card has seen the company roll out 10,000 Point Of Sale (POS) machines across the country. The card allows customers with EcoCash accounts to make transactions with their mobile phones as they would with a debit card.
IHSecurities said Econet demonstrated significant commitment to its growth by snapping up TN Bank Zimbabwe as a hub for the creation of relevant products for the EcoCash platform.
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