Another day another service goes down due to foreign currency issues. Yesterday it was Econet’s Self-service platform today it is Paynet. If you visit their website right now you will be greeted by an error message saying the service is down due to forex issues.
SERVICE IS UNAVAILABLE
The Paynet platform is temporarily inaccessible due to non-payment of external licensing fees to our service provider. We are currently working with the RBZ to resolve this situation as soon as possible and look forward to being able to restore service. Check back on this page or our social media for further updates.
The peacock dance
It seems nowadays companies, especially those in strategic sectors have to do a peacock dance before government or the RBZ so they can get access to foreign currency. For despite the whole floating of the RTGS $ companies are still finding it hard to access forex at the so-called inter-bank rate.
Paynet could have given us a vague notice about system challenges like Econet routinely does but they chose to be open about it. We cannot pay licence fees so RBZ help us or people are not going to get paid.
So what’s Paynet?
Paynet is the electronic payments processing system offered to the market through Financial Institutions. With Paynet, you can pay your creditors, salaries, ZIMRA, NSSA, collect revenue and make use of e-schedules, for a simplified data exchange and reconciliation with your service providers. All this can be done online wherever you are. All local banks are connected. Connect to Paynet now and enjoy great efficiency and low cost.
In other words Paynet is the system that banks offer to companies for mass payments. Companies typically use this system to disburse salary payments automatically at the end of each month. Usually the system is linked to a Payroll system via an API.
Paynet being down means a lot of people, including probably civil servants cannot get paid their salaries. These days banks no longer manually process salary schedules and that’s a good thing. Paynet reduces the chances of errors and fraud.
7 comments
Build locally designed and supported systems. There’s no reason why they can’t. It’s a wake up call.
All formally employed people are probably getting paid via the system.
Are external payments to service providers paid on a daily, weekly or monthly basis? Why crumble so quickly at the onset of the interbank forex market system? They had not pre-paid for, say, a year? This apparently important payment system?
You are right. A local app would be cheaper and save us a ton of forex.
We appreciate your enthusiasm to rush to publish despite not seeking comment from Paynet or Payserv.
As at 18:00 on 13 March, Paynet services resumed and full functionality was restored. Payserv is the lowest cost payment switch serving 22 banks and three MNO’s. Paynet has 5500 corporate clients and 2.5 million beneficiaries. It has served the industry consistently, reliably, seamlessly and accurately for nearly two decades.
Respectfully,
Samir Shasha
CEO
Cambria Africa plc
(Parent company of Payserv Africa and Paynet Zimbabwe)
You sir are of the most engaging CEOs in this nation. I have seen how you engage customers on the Leopard Rock Hotel Page. Thumbs up to you!
The comment was provided as a notice on the Paynet website. This also provided the website as the source of any updates. Thank you for your mini advert too. It’s not seamless, if there was a break in provision of services.