Econet Wireless has launched an e-commerce platform, OWNAI aimed at helping small scale and medium companies to market their products and services to mobile subscribers on its network.

The company's Chief Executive Officer Douglas Mboweni said the service will be free and will be accessible through mobile and desktop.

"OWNAI allows users to buy new and pre-owned items at the most affordable prices, and it takes less than 30 seconds to post a free ad and start selling to interested buyers," Econet said.

Subscribers on rival networks will also be able to access the e-commerce platform, according to Mboweni.

Mobile commerce is slowly taking root in Zimbabwe, with mobile phones now playing a key role in commerce as a means of payment and other transactions.

"We have invested heavily in sophisticated spam and fraud-detection software and we will moderate every ad before it is published on OWNAI," said Mboweni.

The Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) said this week that mobile payments and transactions have been on the increase.

"Mobile money transfer service has been on an upward trajectory since inception. The total value of deposits on mobile money platforms increased by 25.8 percent to record $512 million from $407 million recorded in the previous quarter," said Potraz in its quarterly report for the period ending September.

Mobile money agents have also risen from 25 427 in the prior quarter to 27 862 in the quarter under review. Point of sale transactions have also been a major source of non-cash transaction growth.