Zimbabwe mobile money platform, EcoCash has approached the country’s Central Bank with a request to be exempted from having to integrate with the national payment system ZimSwitch.

In August, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) directed all mobile money operators integrate with the national payment system.

The company argued that there is no need for it to be integrated considering its capacity to operate on its own, its national footprint and the ability to transact over 450 transactions per second.

According to the Postal and Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) EcoCash controlled 97,47% of all mobile money transactions in the country during Q2 2020.

Cassava Smartech chairperson Sheree Shereni said: “The group has also applied to RBZ for EcoCash to be designated as a national switch.”

Independent ICT expert, Brighton Musonza said: “The country stands to benefit by the company’s great leap in financial inclusion.”

Musonza added that since being introduced to the local market, the company has proved to be so efficient, reliable and provided affordable fees.

Shereni said: “The new EcoCash system, which we migrated to in the previous financial year, has stabilised and we’re proud to announce that all issues that occurred during the change – over were adequately resolved.”

“The system now has capacity to complete 450 transactions per second from an average of 200 transactions per second before the upgrade.”

In June 2020 the government directed that individual mobile money transactions will be processed normally, while merchant lines can only facilitate incoming transactions and are compelled to move money into bank accounts to make payments. All agent lines were suspended.

The RBZ has now limited EcoCash lines to one and set a transaction cap of US$5000 for customers.