Want to pay for ZESA using USD? Here’s all you need to know

I know that many people love that government services can be paid for using ZW$ because that means they can convert their USD at a good rate (i.e. the street rate which is always higher than the official one) and then make the payment.

However, there are times when accessing that market is not possible or inconvenient. What’s one to do when they have USD but need to purchase ZESA tokens?

ZESA announced that they now accept USD. You can walk into a ZESA branch with your USD and hand it over to the cashier and you’ll be given a token. You can also use InnBucks and EcoCash USD to pay.

However, It’s not that simple. They don’t really bill you in USD, they just convert your USD to ZW$ at the prevailing interbank rate at the time of purchase. So, if you walk into a ZESA branch with USD cash, that’s what would happen.

It’s the same when you use InnBucks or EcoCash, you’re not really using USD. They convert your USD to ZW$ at the interbank rate too and then process your transaction.

We reached out to ZESA and they told us,

We only charge RTGS for Domestic Customers but if you go and buy ZESA using USD we convert it to RTGS using the prevailing interbank rate on the day

When we asked about the InnBucks and EcoCash USD channels, they said,

They still convert to RTGS

This means there really isn’t a USD tariff schedule for domestic customers.

So, if you want to know how many units you will get for your USD, simply calculate how much your USD is worth in ZW$ using the interbank rate. Then simply input that ZW$ amount in the calculator below:

ZESA Calculator

ZESA Token Calculator

For us to calculate what you need, we first need to know if you bought electricity earlier this month:

Yes, I have bought previously this month No, It’s my first time buying this month

How much electricity did you previously buy for this month?

in ZW$ in kWh

Now you can calculate:

calculate using ZW$ calculate using ZESA units

Calculate

We will be updating the calculator so that you can just input the USD amount and get the answer.

The tariffs

If you want to know the data behind this, here are the tariffs as released on 31 July 2023.

UNITS/kWh	Amount
50	7,190
100	21,550
150	45500
200	69,450
250	102,950
300	136,450
350	174,750
400	213,050
450	253,750
500	294,450
600	375,850
700	457,218
800	538,600
900	620,000
1000	701,450

CONSUMPTION BAND			Charge per kWh	Amount
First 50	0-50kWh	50kWh	143.78	7,189.24
Next 50	51-100kWh	50kWh	287.16	14,357.81
Next 100	101-200	100kWh	478.59	47,858.67
Next 100	201-300kWh	100kWh	670.09	67,009.10
Next 100	301-400kWh	100kWh	765.82	76,581.53
Above 400			813.68

• FARMING – ZW$329.48/kWh
• COMMERCIAL – ZW$767/kWh

ZESA said domestic users are not charged USD meaning some corporates/organisations are. We asked for those tariffs and got the following reply:

Kindly note that currently we do not have an official tariff schedule, however we can assist you to calculate an approximate figure, if you provide the number of units that you intend to purchase..

I know. What a ridiculous reply from the ZETDC National Contact Centre. We will update you when/if they locate it. What are they using to approximate? We would like to see that but we will have to wait, for now.

Also read:

ZESA is now certified to fix faults with drones. It’s not a silver bullet, more of an efficiency thing

Solar for Health project has saved lives, showing that ZESA has blood on its hands for its failures