Econet now giving free data, call time & SMSes if you buy USD airtime

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has announced that if you buy airtime in USD you will get bonus minutes, data and SMSes.

The promotion is running at select Econet Shops nationwide meaning you have to go to an outlet in order to pay in USD. And here is what you’ll get if you buy airtime in USD:

	Voice	Data	SMSes	Bonus Valid For
US$1.00	3 minutes	30 MB	10	1 Day
US$5.00	24 minutes	300 MB	60	3 Days
US$10.00	55 minutes	600 MB	140	5 Days
US$20.00	125 mintues	1 200 MB	310	7 Days

Why didn’t Econet do this 10 months ago?

If you remember in the middle of last year we were graced by Statutory Instrument 185 of 2020 which allowed anyone offering goods and services in Zimbabwe the go-ahead to price them in local currency and USD. The telecoms regulator, POTRAZ, shortly after gave Telecel, NetOne and Econet the green light to price in USD.

Now, this is important because the one thing that has been a highlight of the mobile network operator space for some time is foreign exchange losses. MNOs need to pay for certain services and equipment in foreign currency, and doing so while products and services are priced in local currency is difficult.

The depreciating ZWL$ has meant that when converting to forex MNOs lose out. This promotion by Econet, which by no means solve this problem but could be a step towards it, I think should have come a lot earlier. Without a reason to spend USD on airtime, Zimbabweans were going to continue to use local currency, however, with as much as a gig of data for buying airtime in USD, I can see some people at the very least being tempted.

To check out Econet rates and tariffs in USD click the link here