Continued Cash Shortage Will Force EcoCash To Change

Given the steps that Ecocash has taken from the day that it was introduced to the market until today; it was meant to be a stand alone system, raking in a lot of money, which they have managed to do so far.

But the concept seems to be breaking apart as more convergence is being called for to bring more convenience to the mobile money industry but EcoCash is still trying hard to hold on to the concept of being a stand alone system and only bring other players to their platform and not the other way around.

By Pearson Mbendera

But continued cash shortages will force them to change.

Ecocash pioneered mobile money service here in Zimbabwe, and even when it was just a novel idea, they popularised it well and built a big, self-sustaining system that has seen the service control over 90% of mobile money transactions in Zimbabwe.

When Telecash introduced the Zimswitched enabled debit card, EcoCash followed suit barely a week later with the introduction of their Mastercard, then a resounding response to an industry shaking move by Telecel. But by so doing, EcoCash maintained its stand alone status as it didn’t need to join Zimswitch, which it still hasn’t done today.

Recently Ecocash launched the ‘Swipe to EcoCash’ where all Zimswitched enabled bank cards can be used to cash-in a EcoCash account at any Steward Bank POS machine. The move came after NetOne introduced OneMoney to replace the defunct OneWallet and added a lot of convenience to the mobile money service offered by the state owned telecommunication company. While people expect more convenience from Ecocash,

While people expected EcoCash to join the ZIPIT platform that has brought about so much convenience in the sending and receiving of money via mobile phones, EcoCash is yet to do so, and reported to be unwilling to do so. But how long can they really last before they are forced to join?

Its a no brainer that Telecash and OneMoney are better than EcoCash, but they still rally far behind EcoCash, something that still buffles me today, more so why I still haven’t left the platform for Telecash or OneMoney.

But with cash shortages necessitating the need for transactions to be mobile than cash, EcoCash’s system will have to be changed to be more inter-operable and link well with other banks and mobile money services for better service delivery and ease of doing business in Zimbabwe, something EcoCash is yet to fully offer.