87.9% of payments in Zimbabwe handled through mobile money – RBZ

Nigel Gambanga Avatar

Earlier today, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), Dr John Mangudya presented the 2016 Monetary Policy.

According to the RBZ, in 2015, monetary transactions totaled $57 billion and mobile money payments accounted for 87.9% of these transactions in terms of volumes.

This figure was followed by 5.64% of transactions made via POS terminals and 5.23% from ATMs. RTGS and internet transactions amounted to 0.88% and 0.22% respectively and cheque transactions trailed the entire cluster at 0.15%.

In terms of the value of the transactions, RTGS carried 80.7% of the overall value, followed by 7.5% for mobile, 6.19% for ATM transactions and 2.84% for POS terminal transactional value and 2.52% for internet transactions.

As with previous monetary policy statements that have come in the wake of mobile money adoption, Zimbabwean monetary exchange has been skewed towards mobile financial alternatives.

In January 2015, only 30% of adult Zimbabweans(2,08 million people) held formal bank accounts a number which is outpaced by the 6.06 million mobile subscribers during the same period.

In the face of stringent conditions for accessing formal financial services and an increasingly informal economy, mobile onye has emerged as the leading channel for the movement of funds among the majority of Zimbabweans.

You can access the full monetary policy by following the download link below.

RBZ Monetary Policy Statement – January 2016 (pdf)

6 comments

  1. Fourwallsinaroom

    Hey guys just tested sending money from econet to net*one. Looks like you can send to net one now. cash out went fine!

  2. G

    its obviously a promotion

  3. Toasted Fruit

    87.9% in volume but 7.5% in value for mobile means mobile money is not yet used by corporates in making a lot of their payments, if small mobile money players like telecel could create an offering for corporates i think they could be the apple of mobile payments, having smaller market share but making most of the revenue and profits. In a way its not always a numbers game

  4. Dr. Kereke

    Are the forex transactions $57billion or $5.7billion?? You guys will give Hon Chinamasa a heart attack with your figures kkkkkk

  5. tinm@n

    In the mean time, the conservative, inflexible, hard headed & overcharging banks are lived and will come back with some regulatory loophole

  6. Anonymous

    Plastic mari kuhwina zvirokwazvo nemabhangi kuwana pfuma.

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