By 
By Ross Moyo
Mobile money operators in Zimbabwe have until June 30, 2026, to comply with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s (RBZ) new regulations aimed at curbing illicit financial flows and strengthening the integrity of digital financial services.
The RBZ has warned that penalties and sanctions will apply to non-compliant operators, emphasizing the importance of adhering to the new rules.
“All mobile money operators are required to ensure full compliance with the new regulations by June 30, 2026, failure to which penalties and sanctions will be imposed,” said RBZ Governor Dr John Mushayavanhu.
“The objective is to protect consumers, enhance transparency and stabilise the digital payments ecosystem,” the RBZ boss added.
The new regulations require mobile money operators to implement robust Know Your Customer (KYC) frameworks, including real-time validation of national ID numbers through the Civil Registry, biometric matching, and secure digital storage of records.
To ensure compliance, the RBZ will deploy enhanced compliance reporting, targeted inspections, advanced transaction analytics, and mandatory deregistration of unverified lines and accounts where necessary.
Mobile money operators have been instructed to urgently clean and authenticate their subscriber databases, ensuring that identification details used to register mobile money accounts correspond with the information held by both telecommunications companies and the Civil Registry Department.
The RBZ is working to integrate the national database of the Civil Registry Department with mobile financial services subscriber records, enabling biometric and national identification verification of mobile money users.
This move is expected to reduce impersonation risks and strengthen regulatory oversight of the rapidly expanding mobile money sector.
The “one line, one wallet” policy, which limits each SIM card to a single mobile money account, aims to curb illicit financial flows and reduce the risk of identity manipulation.
The RBZ’s efforts are aimed at promoting a safe, secure, and stable digital payments ecosystem in Zimbabwe.
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