EcoCash Zimbabwe has announced it would venture into the lucrative domestic remittance market through its EcoCash FCA wallet.

EcoCash FCA is added to a list of offerings that have emerged to tap into this market, including CBZ, which launched a dedicated money transfer branch, and start-ups Senditoo, and Shumba Money which offer limited-run transaction-free promotions for cash sent to Zimbabwe.

EcoCash FCA spokesperson Fungai Mandiveyi confirmed that the mobile money operator told its customers, “We want to assure our valued customers that cash will be available at all our designated outlets.”

Independent economist, Paul Musodza said the remittance market is more active and business sought-after “because the figures (regarding) incoming money has been rising over the five years.”

According to the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank, in 2021 this figure stood at US$1.430-billion.

Local companies that have witnessed a surge in the domestic remittance are BancABC’s City Hopper, NBS Banks’s Instant Cash, Steward Bank Remit, Mojo Mula, and many others.

Mobile money operator, OneMoney launched its own service, OneRemit has joined the bandwagon in local foreign currency trade.

The company announced that the consumers will be able to do their transactions through a new shortcode, *154#. The new access platform is there to give some separation from the conventional EcoCash*151# which is for the locals only. And for those who prefer using the Ecocash app, the service is there, but users must switch local currency and US dollars.

Cash in/ Cash out and charges

According to Musodza, the Ecocash domestic service seemed the cheapest in the country when a consumer sends money for local remittance.

He noted that it costs (as a charge) 1.56% cheaper for US$ 100 in comparison to that charged by other operators for sending the same amount.

Another local company, Innbuck is currently in the lead - at 2% total cost - charged to the sender and not the recipient, and the company currently limits the maximum amount of transaction to US$200.