Mobile Money Users Hate Sending Money Across Networks As Those Type Of Transactions Fall By 59%

Nobody likes the inconvenience that comes with sending someone money via mobile money if the recipient isn’t on the same network as you. That much has been established and is one of the reasons why Econet has managed to keep their subscriber base extremely high as their dominance on the mobile money front means you simply need to have an EcoCash line.

It wasn’t clear how unpopular cross-network mobile money transfers have become until the most recent POTRAZ report, which showed a 59% drop in the amounts sent between networks from Q3 to Q4 last year. Cross-network mobile transactions fell from $239 700 to $98 092 and POTRAZ is blaming the decline on the lack of interoperability:

Cross-network transactions have been declining and this is attributable to the lack of comprehensive wallet to wallet interoperability amongst the three mobile money providers.

Another reason why cross network transfers have become less relevant can be attributed to the fact that these transactions are shared between Telecash and OneMoney who have 4.6% of the active mobile money subscriber market share. It’s not entirely surprising that these transactions have been plummeting since most people using mobile money are subscribed to EcoCash thus the need to perform cross-network transfers is minimized. This may be changing pretty soon, however, with NetOne’s OneMoney subscriber base on the rise.

Thankfully, there’s an alternative…

Thankfully this lack of interoperability will not continue to leave users with a less than ideal experience as Steward Bank’s Sosholoza fixes the issue of interoperability between wallets. Sosholoza allows users to perform wallet to wallet transactions without the need for a third party (agent) and best of all the platform is accessible on WhatsApp. The cross-network statistic in the POTRAZ report will continue to plummet since Sosholoza transactions are considered wallet to bank transactions with both Telecash and OneMoney being on the Zimswitch platform. Consumers get the best deal as you are not tied to Econet solely because of EcoCash…