The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) released a statement that concerned the discussions and resolutions made by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) that took place on the 2nd of October 2020. One of the key aspects highlighted in the statement was the ZWL$35 000 a week mobile money limit that took effect last week. Mobile money subscribers can now spend 35K a week and if they wish, they can max out the limit in a single day. Transactions to the weekly limit are however restricted to ZWL$5000 at a time.
The part concerning the 35K mobile money a week limit went as follows:
“Maintaining the limit of ZW$5 000 per transaction for mobile money transactions and adopting a weekly limit of ZW$35 000. These limits will be reviewed continuously in line with the requirements and convenience of the transacting public.”
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
This is a bit of a double-edged sword. What I mean by this is there is hope that the 35K mobile money limit will be expanded in the future. We also hope that a review of the limits will address the inconvenience of the 5K per transaction limit.
On the other hand, we have just entered into the era of interoperability in Zimbabwe. The integration of all mobile money operators to ZimSwitch is complete but it is difficult, at present, to forecast what the future holds. If there is a reason, in the future, to put the screws to mobile money again, then the review of the limit could very well go the other way.
The latter, of course, isn’t the hope, but if the encounters between the authorities and EcoCash are anything to go by. It is prudent, I think, to ponder the possibility of either outcome.
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