Why are you still using EcoCash?

Valentine Muhamba

12 May 2021

The question might sound strange because EcoCash is pretty an institution when it comes to payments in Zimbabwe. However, when it comes to issues like the cost of transactions, OneMoney and Telecash are far more reasonable than EcoCash.

Furthermore, interoperability ushering in a new age in Zimbabwe. We thought that the public would dabble with the other mobile money operators. However, from POTRAZ’s reports, it looks like OneMoney (we will say nothing of Telecash) is not gaining ground on EcoCash as fast as we thought.

	Q3 2020	Q4 2020	Difference
EcoCash	5 425 148	5 553 981	1.9%
OneMoney	854 320	936 476	9.6%
Telecash	19 198	5 222	-72.8%
Total	6 325 666	6 495 682	2.7%

Maybe that’s because many are now transacting out of their bank accounts to go around the ZWL$35 000 a week limit. Or that people are just content with EcoCash as a service and prefer the devil they know…

This among many other things is something that we thought we should have a conversation about to gauge our stance on this new era of payments in Zimbabwe. You can play or download the podcast with the link below:

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11 comments

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Mvecks

12 May 2021 19:48

The answer is simple a lot of people are on econet i.e they use buddie lines. The hustle of switching sim cards is too daunting, because once your number has been in use for a long time that’s the contact number that all your contacts know, so to change it it’s …ney. Netone should try and capture generation Z,they are fresh still popping out of the box and are beginning to knock on the job market. Not to say they don’t have phones right now but they aren’t as established and so could be easier to convince if approached with the right strategy.

Reply
1. Valentine Muhamba
  
  12 May 2021 23:18
  
  You don’t necessarily have to change numbers. You can play around with a different mobile network operator without throwing away the other. And as for trying to attract Gen Z, OneMoney is giving customers 10% off on airtime purchased through OneMoney, you also get 500MB of data for just depositing a grand in your wallet. They have done the most, in my opinion, but Zimbos seems to have an unhealthy dependency on EcoCash…
  
  Reply
  1. Anonymous
    
    13 May 2021 18:46
    
    To be honest, onemoney doesn’t even know how to market its products. All the promotions you’re talking of are not known by a lot of people, I’ve never seen a netone flier. They’re not serious with their business and they might even lose more customers to ecocash if they don’t act up quick.
    
    Reply
Adena

12 May 2021 23:05

So once off data promotions aren’t what are going to make me change my line. I’ve had an Econet line for ages, changing numbers for mobile money means changing business cards, business email signatures, literally anything that has my number. A $10 difference in transfer charges is the least of my worries. I’m also on WiFi most of the time, so Econet/netone data charges are only for short term emergencies and not a concern. Coverage too. I was in Binga couple of weeks back and no Netone anywhere. Just Econet

Reply
1. Valentine Muhamba
  
  12 May 2021 23:13
  
  Fair point, I have both and interchange when necessary. There are things that I use my OneMoney more than my EcoCash for.
  
  I’m just confused that most Zimbos didn’t at least try out the other services. I know a lot of people who have multiple bank accounts from different banks but only EcoCash for mobile money which is very very strange…
  
  Reply
  1. Mvecks
    
    16 May 2021 15:21
    
    Valentine if the fish is not biting don’t blame the fish! Netone needs to have a compelling offer for people to bite,right now what they have is simply not good enough so what they need to do is to go back to the drawing board,and come up with a strategy for adoption. Ecocash is not just a brand my dear it’s now a verb,” ecocash me the money!” And the other thing Like somebody pointed out in the comments we have not heard about these offers and promotions we are only hearing them from you guys! And it’s not hard to see why, when it comes to promotion messages it’s easy to run them when people are using your network, because all you have to do is send them to the people, but if people are not using your sim cards in the first place then you will have to use paid advertising which is expensive, perhaps that’s why we haven’t seen any of these promotions you are talking about. There is no easy way! Netone has to be extraordinary to swing users, they can not be marginally better. Netone is the new telecel. I would be surprised if among Netone execs there is not one who has ecocash but, i will be totally spooked if even one econet exec has one wallet. Business is like a democracy if you’re loosing to the competition don’t blame the electorate, improve your manifesto! It would be good to have an alternative compelling option to use, right now Vale, .. dololo!
    
    Reply
The Principal

13 May 2021 09:15

When we focus on saving a few dollars, we lose the bigger picture of making money. Look, with the return of the usd, rtgs transactions become option B! Now 9f rtgs transactions account for 20% in value of my monthly transactions, why should I even bother think about Net1 when Ecocash is available? One Money is the small house, I go there when things aren’t ok at home hahaha.

Reply
Robert

13 May 2021 15:43

Let’s remember the investment that Econet did especially with merchants. It’s way more simple to make a purchase at most stores with Ecocash than with the other 2 because of how tightly ingerated it is at POS level.

Reply
Anonymous

13 May 2021 18:48

Netone ndakatongoimakira izvozvo yes izvozvo

Reply
dereck

14 May 2021 06:00

i believe netone needs Muchenje that guy was really transforming netone asi politics tinodziwanza

Reply
tashinga sithole

15 May 2021 01:01

One money, if it wants credibility, it should learn not to attack others like ecocash, coz by doing so you will never grow. No one interested in a company that try leaping by attacking others! Ecocash doesn’t attack others at all, and that’s why it flourishes!!!!!.

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