Econet to Launch Money Transfer Facility in South Africa
Gibbs Dube
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe
WASHINGTON DC —
Telecommunications giant, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, says it will early next month launch a money transfer scheme under its Eco-Cash mobile platform in South Africa that will make it easy for Zimbabweans living in that county to send cash back home.
Econet chief executive officer, Douglas Mboweni, says the company decided to launch the scheme in South Africa after getting massive support on its Eco-Cash mobile phone platform in Zimbabwe.
Mboweni says Zimbabweans have over the years relied on various methods of transferring money to relatives and friends which at times were inconvenient.
He says the Eco-Cash scheme to be used by subscribers who utilize Econet Wireless South Africa’s Call-Home Sim Cards, will be able to load money on their mobile phones and send instant text message to recipients.
The telecommunications giant’s international Eco-Cash scheme will compete with Western Union, Money-Gram, Mukuru.com and other money transfer schemes.
Its mobile Eco-Cash platform, which will also be launched in Zambia and Botswana possibly by the end of this year, is expected to increase the volume of remittances to Zimbabwe.
Zimbabweans living in the diaspora send close to $500 million to Zimbabwe very year.
