“ZANU PF commends gvt for allowing ‘EcoCash’ to be overseen by RBZ through Zimswitch”

The title of this article is a paraphrase of part of the statement issued by ZANU PF today commenting on the economy. Here is the actual excerpt:

ZANU PF also wishes to commend government for the decision that it has taken to allow mobile money operators to be overseen by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe through the Zim-Switch platform.

As a matter of fact, ZANU PF considers this decision to be a masterstroke which will give an invisible hand to the government to manage and direct the country towards a common good.

The channelling of all mobile money transactions through this platform is the right thing to do and will, in the end, restore stability and sanity to the banking sector.

Mobile money transaction platforms had become a law unto themselves making rules for banks and others to comply with.

ZANU PF thus supports the measures that the government has taken in this regard as it considers them necessary medicine to cure our economy which is under siege.

The measures will no doubt in due course become a sound basis for strategic sustainable nation-building, a platform for robust employment creation for our people, stabilisation of the exchange rate and resuscitation of our key productive sectors.

The statement was issued by former minister of finance (well and other ministries really), Patrick Chinamasa in his capacity as the Acting ZANU PF Secretary for Information. It was mainly targeted at Old Mutual. ZANU PF is saying Old Mutual must de-list from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and then list on a new USD denominated stock exchange in Zimbabwe.

The RBZ decision

We expressed reservations on how the RBZ unilaterally appointed Zimswitch to be the national switch that every financial services operator must connect to. That reservation was on a point of principle about the picking of a private company to perform the role of universal infrastructure within the market that private company competes in. Oh, there were a number of objections (some very understandable) about those reservations but we stick to that position.

The expressed reservations were expressed under the assumption that the RBZ made this decision to facilitate financial inclusion through interoperability. However, it seems the motivation is not at all noble. The motivation is to curb the parallel market which will not be achieved by this move without addressing the underlying cause of the parallel market.