EcoCash transaction charges are set to go up marginally, with effect from the 3rd of April 2022, according to a notice published on the mobile money platform’s website.
Although EcoCash Holdings Zimbabwe Limited, which owns the country’s largest mobile money platform EcoCash, did not respond to questions sent to them by 263Chat, the company’s website confirmed that “tariffs will be reviewed on the 3rd of April 2022”.
Our initial calculation suggests an average 15 percent adjustment of the transaction fees, apparently well within the estimated annual inflation rate of 66 percent.
The new charges are coming at a time when the prices of goods and services in Zimbabwe have recently shot up, further stoked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has been blamed for the recent fuel prices increases, as well as other global supply chain disruptions.
The government this week reduced fuel prices by between two and five percent, from US$167 per litre of petrol to US$1.59.
But the fuel price increases announced a week ago had already triggered a series of price increases of basic goods and services.
There are fears that the price of maize meal and bread could rise again in the coming few days after the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe said the Russia-Ukraine conflict was pushing up global costs of grain and fertiliser.
Sources say the country’s other mobile money services, NetOne’s OneMoney and Telecel’s Telecash, are likely going to review their transaction fees soon.
