Zimbabwe’s largest mobile operator Econet Wireless says it is in the final stages of developing a mobile money system to enable remittances between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

In a statement, the telecoms provider -- which has eight million subscribers -- says Zimbabweans living in South Africa who use its ‘CALL HOME SIM’ cards are planned to be able to load money using their handsets, and send it ‘instantly’ to an Econet number in Zimbabwe.

Recipients in Zimbabwe can then cash in the transfers at any of the nearly 7,000 EcoCash agents countrywide.

Econet says it is working on a soft launch of the service with partners in South Africa in selected areas. Meanwhile, a full scale launch is expected end of September, following nine months of development on the project.

"Our research suggests that by making it quicker and easier to send small amounts, of as little as R5, at any time, we will see a massive inflow of money, just like we see on EcoCash here at home,” said Darlington Mandivenga, chief executive officer of Econet Services, in a press statement.

Remittances are among the most important sources of foreign currency inflows for Zimbabwe, according to South African advocacy group People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (Passop).

Last year, Passop said that owing to an estimated two million Zimbabweans having migrated to South Africa in the past decade, about R6,8 billion (or $847 million) was sent to Zimbabwe in 2011.

But Econet in its statement on Wednesday says it could help boost the level of remittance flows between the two countries even futher.

“The volume of remittances coming into Zimbabwe could easily be trebled if the process of sending money is put on Econet Wireless’ EcoCash platform,” says the company.

However, Econet is not the first company to provide a service catered specifically to the transfer of cash via mobiles between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

South African headquartered First National Bank (FNB) in April this year unveiled a money transfer service that allows its customers in South Africa, who are registered for FNB Cellphone Banking, to send money to Zimbabwe residents at a remittance fee of R45 for amounts between R100 - R1000.

Amounts of between R1001 and R1500 have a rate fee of R70 on the FNB service.

To use FNB’s transfer service, recipients in Zimbabwe don’t need to be registered FNB customers, but they must be residents of that country and hold valid identity documents.

Recipients can then collect their money at two OK stores in Harare and Bulawayo.

FNB’s head of digital and alternative banking, Yolande van Wyk, told ITWeb Africa earlier this year that informal ways of sending money to Zimbabwe from South Africa via taxi drivers could cost anything from R20 for a R100 transfer.

Her statement is backed up by World Bank data, which says that 20% of money sent to Zimbabwe from South Africa is spent on getting it there.

It is unclear, though, as to what charges the Econet remittance service could incur for users.

Plans are also in place to target remittances from South Africa, Botswana, and Zambia before the end of the year before expanding to other countries such as the UK and the US, said Econet's Mandivenga.