Want to buy your ZESA prepaid electricity online? – here are 9 options

Paying for services and buying items through the internet has become so much easier in Zimbabwe.

It’s not surprising then that this ease has also been extended to utilities like electricity which most people now use through a prepaid system.

We recently wrote about the latest solution for online ZESA payments – a mobile app called Instapay that lets users buy the prepaid electricity tokens and make payments using EcoCash and Telecash – the two most popular mobile money services in Zimbabwe.

However, this is not the first tool for online ZESA payments and it likely won’t be the last. In the meantime, we’ve listed some of these alternatives nine in total – that you can use if you want to buy ZESA online.

The list doesn’t include the mobile banking apps from local financial which have this feature – That’s part of a separate list of mobile banking apps.

The focus here is on apps or platforms that don’t require you to open a bank account and have tapped into ubiquitous payment options like mobile money.

This list is not conclusive and we’d love to get other suggestions in the comments that can be used by everyone trying to buy ZESA online.

Techzim Market

No doubt our favourite! Here’s where to buy ZESA tokens on Techzim Market web. You will soon be able to do this via The Techzim Market App (which you can use to pay DStv in local currency etc) as well as Techzim Market on WhatsApp, the easiest way to buy without leaving WhatsApp.

Instapay

This a mobile app from Afrosoft. It will give an option to buy prepaid ZESA plus airtime using EcoCash and Telecash. From the early promo material on the service it looks like Visa and MasterCard options afre also in the works.

Ecocash

Zimbabwe’s largest mobile money operator was allowed to resell electricity a bit later than its state owned rival. It is one of the most convenient options given that most Zimbabweans have Ecocash.

OneMoney

The State’s own mobile operator NetOne was given first preference on mobile distribution of ZESA tokens years ago through its mobile money service, OneWallet. This was probably OneMoney’s strongest value added service and if you have a NetOne line you can still access it to buy your ZESA from anywhere.

Prepaid.co.zw

This is also a web based platform with a single focus – Prepaid ZESA electricity. Payment options are EcoCash and TeleCash which probably refemcts the problem they were trying to solve – the absence of a direct ZESA/EcoCash integration.

Telecash

Just like Econet, Telecel wasn’t initially lucky enough to integrate a ZESA prepaid electricity payemnt option with its mobile money service Telecash but at some point the mobeile operator managed to seal the deal. As a result you can buy your ZESA using the Telecash USSD service. The feature hasn’t made it to Telecash’s mobile app, something that will hopefully be addressed.

Telpay

Developed by the fixed telecoms operator TelOne as a platform for buying TelOne products and bill payments it’s turned into a multi-million dollar platform that also has the all important prepaid ZESA option. Unfortunately these features haven’t been included in telOne’s mobile app so for now it’s just the website that you’ll have to contend with.

Topup

The guys from Paynow, the payments integration startup that’s done a bit of heavylifting in bringing mobile money payments online also developed this one-stop payment option that handles everything from topus for internet services to ZESA payments.