Expat Zimbabweans living and working in South Africa will now be able to make cross border mobile money remittances back home using the EcoCash mobile money platform.

EcoCash is run by Zimbabwe's Econet Wireless and has become an integral value added service to support the company's quest to diversify away from the traditional voice category, which is witnessing declining revenues.

The company said on Thursday 11 June that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has now licenced it to undertake cross border mobile money remittances. Under the newly licenced service, expat Zimbabweans in SA will be able to send money and deposit into the mobile money accounts of friends and relative back home.

"EcoCash and its South African partners have finally secured approval from the South African Reserve Bank to start a cross border remittance service from South Africa," Econet said.

It said it was likely to take more than a month to kick-start the operation. It took Econet Wireless more than a year to secure regulatory and central bank approval for the service from the South African authorities. "However, we should be up and running by the end of next month."

Funds as low as R50 can now be remitted back to Zimbabwe and straight into mobile money wallets run by Econet. However, there is no indication as yet of the cost for the service or the maximum amount that can be remitted using the new platform.

"Econet predicts that the new service will fundamentally alter the pattern of remittances which today is characterized by large, lump sum transfers of around R1 000 being sent monthly or every several months," said the company.