Remittances or money transfer services are big businesses in this dollarisation 2.0 era. International incomings have been impressive with 2020 posting the best figures the country has ever seen and 2021 looking to surpass that record.
On the domestic front, there have been players who have sprung up here and there with BancABC’s City Hopper being the only one to post how much it handled in its first year (US$10 million). With a clear appetite for this kind of service in this new epoch of the US Dollar in Zimbabwe, there is another player who has put their hat in the ring and goes by the name MojoMula.
The city to city money transfer service is the brainchild of a local company called Trolleycom Finance which isn’t new to the remittance game. The firm is one of the few independent companies in Zimbabwe that got the nod by World Remit to be their local agent when the international money transfer company made its entry into southern Africa.
MojoMula is coming to market having solved one of the biggest problems that most fledgeling money transfer services take time to solve, which is collection points. The firm has partnered with OK Zimbabwe to have their vast network of nationwide 66 branches.
This vast network puts them almost at par with Access Forex’s wide network of Zimpost outlets and is far ahead of what BancABC’s City Hopper currently has. However, when it comes to the issue of commission and fees, MojoMula is closer to Mukuru than the baseline 3% charge held by the rest of the competition.
Domestic remittance services fees
| Limit | Fees | |
| BancABC City Hopper | US$250 for non-BancABC customers US$500 for BancABC customers | 3% |
| Access Forex | – | 3% |
| Mukuru | US$1000 | 7% |
| NBS InstaCash | – | 3% |
| Steward Remit | – | 2% |
| MojoMula | – | 5% |
The cheapest is the recently announced Steward remit which for the moment is charging 2%. I say for the moment because I suspect that they are marking the price down to lure customers in and then like BancABC will shift up a gear and match the rest of the market.
As the “incumbent” Mukuru can pretty much charge what it likes and for whatever reason, they are still one of the most referred money transfer services. In saying that, MojoMula might get market validation at the 5% commission point.
They have the network and are pretty accessible, so for some splitting the difference for a couple of per cent might not be worth it for how MojoMula has set up its collection and sending points. At the end of the day, the market decides and it will be interesting to see what verdict it delivers for this new service.
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