Well it seems the payment space in Zimbabwe is on the verge of a shakeup and recent evidence in the EcoCash app seems to indicate that customers will soon be able to make payments using QR (Quick Response) codes. I’m not exactly sure when the app was updated to include this feature but all that matters is that it’s there now.
Brace yourselves…
At the recently ended Zimswitch Payment Conference one person I talked to who works in the banking industry sounded pretty confident that within the next 6 months QR codes would be a payment method in the country.
Based off the developments in the EcoCash app it seems the guy was spot on. He stated that a number of different banks were also looking at this payment method so it does seem this technology will be getting adopted sooner rather than later.
The addition of this feature is obviously a forward-looking move as QR payments are yet to actually take off in the country. Last year in March, Ecobank’s mobile app came with QR code functionality that tapped into the Masterpass QR platform but unfortunately it failed to take off. Later on in, October Ecobank launched Scan+Pay in over 30 countries but again it failed to gain traction on the local scene.
QR has been waiting for its moment in the light…
It’s a bit weird that QR has been around for decades but has just never really found a particular use that made it mainstream. It seems that’s about to change as QR is being embraced in a number of countries such as South Africa, China, India and Pakistan etc.
Why QR?
Accessibility
Those of you who read publications such as The Verge and GSM Arena may be wondering why we are adopting QR over other payment methods such as NFC (Near Field Communication) or biometric enabled payment methods. The simple answer is QR is easier to access and in a developing country such as ours, NFC or Biometric payments are not justifiable as the phones that have this technology are not commonly available as they are in developed countries.
QR however is accessible to any phone with a camera and that makes it much more useful as the level of entry for QR is much lower compared to NFC or biometrics. Obviously, those with feature phones are not catered for but there are enough people with smartphones to justify EcoCash taking the QR route.
Speed
Our current payment methods are not exactly quick, especially in the case of mobile money payments. Customers have to dial in the EcoCash shortcode, then select the amount they have to pay before entering their pin. This has resulted in longer wait times at the tills and if you have ever been in a queue at a shop you probably understand that every second you wait there feels like a second wasted. With QR ,however, customers will just get to the till, scan the QR code at the till and voila! Payment made.
Cost
For merchants the QR system will be much cheaper than the current POS system so it seems there’s incentive for both the merchants and the customers.
It may not seem like a huge deal from where you are standing, but I think its great and I look forward to this technology and seriously hope this becomes the primary payment technology in the country.
I’m not sure if the QR payment option is appearing in the EcoCash app for iOS yet as we discovered the feature on Android. The entire Techzim team happens to be on Android by the way, so if you are on iOS it would be grand if you just commented on whether or not the feature is available on the EcoCash app for iOS.
We caught wind of this recent development from a Techzim community group member on Whatsapp. Shout out to Uber Tech, You’re the real MVP!
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8 comments
“embraced in a number of countries such as South Africa, China, …”
Hi there Farai. QR based payments are NOT embraced in China, they are UBIQUITOUS in China and are the number 1 form of payment in that country, and been adopted for a number of years now.
Yes and I believe that is embracing QR payments
It’s also available on iOS
Yes. It’s also on iOS
TLC payments is launching its QR Based Payment service soon. Zimbabwe is now starting to catch up on China on mainstreaming QR Payments.
can we not just get tap to pay? and cut the nonsense?
Tap to pay up to $25.00 anything more than that would require a passcode? it’d make a lot of peoples lives better.
The problem will all these payment methods is that they are all poorly rolled out by service providers. Despite non of technologies being new, they fail roll outs dismally. All they need to do is copy an implementation and roll it out efficiently and quickly. When playing catch up this should be easy, since others have dealt with the teething problems of these technologies.
But not in Zimbabwe, here more effort is put towards the launch event, rather than the roll out. After the launch event, the product quickly fades into the background. EcoCash TA, Zap It (or something like that) and Ecobanks Masterpass are examples of this.
Unlike the article, I envision this feature will just involve scanning a merchants passive QR Code (on the merchant number banner) then entering the amount. Saving you having to do the * blah blah * process. It is unlikely to be active QR Code (that is, with amount information embedded) as it would require the merchant to modify their POS software. Requiring merchants to add such an integration is a guaranteed way of slowing down the adoption process.
If the app was written insecurely, passive QR Codes open you up to fraud as it’s hard to verify an authentic QR by sight. By authentic, I mean that the merchant number you intend to pay matches the one encoded in the QR Code presented to you. Anyway, let’s see how it goes.
Thanks for the feedback and yeah I do agree that there is usually more emphasis on the launch event rather than what happens after. Hopefully you’re wrong and things will go well with QR