Classrooms might be going paperless and offices are going desktop-less, but are economies going cash-less? That seems to be a very big possibility, especially in Zimbabwe, as the country’s banks are charging forward on the mobile banking innovation path at a rapid speed, quickly helping the country move towards a cashless economy.
With mobile banking technologies in tow, virtually all transactions can be handled via a smartphone –from paying for a t-shirt, to paying back someone for loaning you money for dinner the other night, to keeping tabs on your savings and checking balances, to paying your credit cards. And why pack your wallet with loads of bills when your trusty ole’ smartphone can do all the heavy lifting for you?
In Zimbabwe, a slightly improved financial market has served as the catalyst for many banks introducing popular money transfer services. In fact, bankers reported this week that most of the mobile money transfer options have been widely accepted by the banking public, including small businesses and workers. The money transfer options include Kingdom Bank’s CellCard, Zimbabwe Bank’s e-Wallet and e-Mali, FBC’s Mobile Moola and the Central African Building Society’s TextaCash.
In particular, Econet’s EcoCash mobile banking service has become ubiquitous as under the Mobile Moola scheme, Econet subscribers pay 7c for each transaction while on the EcoCash platform, there is a 2 percent charge for a transaction for sending money to a registered EcoCash user, according to the article. Other schemes have charges of up to $1.30 per transaction.
Independent economist Vince Musewe said mobile money transfers are also popular among Zimbabwean workers as “Clients will in the near future be able to pay commuter omnibus fares using their mobile phones.”
Another country in Africa that is quickly hopping aboard the mobile banking bandwagon is South Africa, as the country boasts one of the world’s highest mobile banking user rates. In fact, South Africa is only expected to continue its mobile banking adoption thanks to a 100 percent mobile phone penetration rate and a banking segment that is gunning to reach a largely unbanked segment of the country’s population, according to a recent article.
Specifically, CEO of First National Bank's (FNB's) Cellphone Banking Solutions Ravesh Ramlakan recently shared that the mobile phone is the future of retail banking in South Africa. Since the convergence of cell phones and banking technology is paving the way for seamless shopping, communication and banking, Ramlakan believes that the days of customers using their bank branch for banking needs will become obsolete.
According to a recent survey by professional services company KPMG, countries with large unbanked populations are adopting mobile payments more and more each day as a way to quickly and reliably transfer money. When it comes to South Africa, banking leaders predict that that sentiment will hold true as the country’s banking sector is expected to gain an extra eight million previously unbanked customers over the next five years.
For more on South Africa’s mobile banking adoption, click here.
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Edited by Rich Steeves
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