Mobile money operators have heeded the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) directive to suspend agent lines and convert merchant lines into
one-way channels, allowing payments to come in while cashing out is to be made
through a bank, to stop large sums being fed anonymously into the black market.
The development followed a statement by Government last
Friday suspending mobile money platforms, to deal with “malpractices,
criminality and economic sabotage” perpetuated by some mobile money operators.
On Saturday, the RBZ said genuine individual transactions
would be processed normally, that is those by holders of ordinary lines, while
merchant lines would become one way, allowing incoming transactions, but
merchants would then be required to move their money to their bank accounts to
make almost all payments from the bank accounts rather than from their mobile
wallets. However, agent lines were all suspended.
The Herald gathered last night that all mobile money
operators had complied with the RBZ directive.
Cassava Smartech group media and corporate communications
executive, Mr Fungai Mandivheyi, declined to comment on the issue. However, a
well-placed source confirmed that EcoCash had complied with the directive.
“Yes, I can confirm that we have complied with the RBZ
directive. I must emphasise that EcoCash is a law-abiding company and we didn’t
have problems in following the directive,” said the source. A NetOne spokesperson said: “NetOne has complied with the
guidelines set by the RBZ.”
It could not be immediately established how many agent
lines had been suspended, but EcoCash, the largest player in the mobile money
sector by the number of subscribers and transactions is understood to have just
over 501 000 agent and merchant lines as at June 10, 2020.
The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of
Zimbabwe (Potraz) 2020 first quarter telecommunications sector report shows
that EcoCash processed 98.31 percent transactions compared to 1.66 percent for
OneMoney and 0.04 percent for Telecash.
Economist Mr Langton Mabhanga, who is a board member of the
Pan-African Chamber of Commerce, told The Herald last night that the compliance
by mobile money operators was welcome.
“In instances where some agent and merchant accounts were
conduits for high volume forex trading, the move by RBZ to suspend them may
curtail the escalation of the exchange rate and reports that the concerned
companies have complied are welcome and once implemented, can potentially slow
down the currency spike and reassert the importance of production and inclusive
development,” said Mr Mabhanga.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce chief executive Mr
Takunda Mugaga weighed in, saying: “It means there are no significant
transactions that can happen on the EcoCash platform as merchants and agents
are required to accept and disburse e-money in the same way deposits and withdrawals
take place in a bank.”
Economist Mr Persistence Gwanyanya said following the
challenges associated with mobile money in the last few weeks, there is need to
revisit the mobile-based money architecture with a view to understanding the
risk of monetary expansion from mobile money agents, which could be a source of
currency instability.
“The suspicion currently is that mobile money based
transfer operators could be contributing to monetary expansion through
participating in a credit creation process through their agents, making it very
difficult to manage money supply growth and therefore currency stability and
inflation,” he said.
Mr Gwanyanya said this makes it difficult for the RBZ to
manage internally created money supply, which impacts negatively on the
efficacy of the monetary policy to stabilise both the local currency and
inflation. Herald
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