EcoCash today launched a digital mobile phone-based Bureau de Change, in a move set to provide much-needed convenience to the 10 million registered EcoCash customers.
In a first by a mobile money service provider, the EcoCash currency bureau service will allow EcoCash customers to sell foreign currency in real time and instantly have the local currency converted and credited to their wallets.
The introduction of the digital Bureau de Change follows the granting of an operating licence to EcoCash by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, immediately increasing access to specialized digital financial services to millions of Zimbabweans.
Speaking at the launch of the service in Harare today, EcoCash CEO Ms Natalie Jabangwe explained how the service would work.
“Before performing a currency conversion transaction, one needs to fund their EcoCash wallet,” she said, adding that a wallet could be funded in a number of ways.
“You fund your wallet by doing a Cash-In of physical US dollars (or forex) into the wallet. Or you fund your wallet over the counter, at any Econet Shop. You can also fund your wallet through a direct in-wallet receipt of remittances from the Diaspora into your EcoCash wallet. This could be through existing EcoCash remittance partners which include Cassava Remit, World Remit, Mukuru, Western Union, Money Gram, Orange Botswana and MTN.”
She said an EcoCash customer could also fund their wallet via a Nostro bank-to-wallet transfer on their phone, from their respective FCA bank account linked to the EcoCash FCA wallet.
She said once the wallet was funded, a customer could then proceed to dial a dedicated EcoCash Bureau de Change menu on the access code *150# to carry out their transaction.
“Customers will be able to check the rate of the day, get a quote for the amount to be sold and receive instant ‘confirmation of sale’ of foreign currency and the ZW$ conversation amount – all this happening via their mobile phone,” Ms Jabangwe said.
Cassava Smartech CEO Mr Eddie Chibi, the parent company of EcoCash, said: “We are excited to be the first and only mobile financial service provider in Africa to offer this innovative service to our customers, empowering them with a simple, convenient, fast and real-time Bureau de Change service that they can access and use to transact anywhere, anytime.”
He said the service will help customers access competitive exchange rates quickly, convert or change their money in real-time, and transact on a secure platform that they have come to trust.
Ms Jabangwe said EcoCash continued to leverage the dynamic innovation capabilities that technology gives by building new products and services that go beyond the early services of financial inclusion.
“The advantage of having a scaled transaction platform is that you can build new services in line with a changing market environment. Accessibility of these services on the mobile phone enables us to travel the journey with our customers towards more complex but necessary financial services in the future,” she said.
