EcoCash today launched
a digital mobile phone-based Bureau de Change, in a move set to provide
much-needed convenience to the 10 million registered EcoCash customers.
In a first by a
mobile money service provider, the EcoCash currency bureau service will allow EcoCash
customers to sell foreign currency in real time and instantly have the local
currency converted and credited to their wallets.
The introduction
of the digital Bureau de Change follows the granting of an operating licence to
EcoCash by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, immediately increasing access to
specialized digital financial services to millions of Zimbabweans.
Speaking at the
launch of the service in Harare today, EcoCash CEO Ms Natalie Jabangwe explained
how the service would work.
“Before performing
a currency conversion transaction, one needs to fund their EcoCash wallet,” she
said, adding that a wallet could be funded in a number of ways.
“You fund your
wallet by doing a Cash-In of physical US dollars (or forex) into the wallet. Or
you fund your wallet over the counter, at any Econet Shop. You can also fund
your wallet through a direct in-wallet receipt of remittances from the Diaspora
into your EcoCash wallet. This could be through existing EcoCash remittance partners
which include Cassava Remit, World Remit, Mukuru, Western Union, Money Gram,
Orange Botswana and MTN.”
She said an
EcoCash customer could also fund their wallet via a Nostro bank-to-wallet
transfer on their phone, from their respective FCA bank account linked to the
EcoCash FCA wallet.
She said once the
wallet was funded, a customer could then proceed to dial a dedicated EcoCash
Bureau de Change menu on the access code *150# to carry out their transaction.
“Customers will be
able to check the rate of the day, get a quote for the amount to be sold and receive
instant ‘confirmation of sale’ of foreign currency and the ZW$ conversation
amount – all this happening via their mobile phone,” Ms Jabangwe said.
Cassava Smartech
CEO Mr Eddie Chibi, the parent company of EcoCash, said: “We are excited to be
the first and only mobile financial service provider in Africa to offer this
innovative service to our customers, empowering them with a simple, convenient,
fast and real-time Bureau de Change service that they can access and use to
transact anywhere, anytime.”
He said the
service will help customers access competitive exchange rates quickly, convert
or change their money in real-time, and transact on a secure platform that they
have come to trust.
Ms Jabangwe said EcoCash
continued to leverage the dynamic innovation capabilities that technology gives
by building new products and services that go beyond the early services of
financial inclusion.
“The advantage of having a scaled transaction
platform is that you can build new services in line with a changing market
environment. Accessibility of these services on the mobile phone enables us to travel
the journey with our customers towards more complex but necessary financial
services in the future,” she said.
