Online Reporter
Business Reporter
Zimbabweans are embracing digital payments, with e-commerce adoption leaping from 17 percent to 50 percent, but cash remains stubbornly dominant across key sectors, a survey by Topline Research Solutions has revealed.
Presenting findings at the Zimswitch Payments Conference in Victoria Falls, Topline CEO Mr Partson Gasura said while confidence in digital platforms was high at 72 percent, significant barriers to adoption remained.
“Cash remains very stubborn across all sectors,” Mr Gasura said. “When you look at things like transport, 95 percent of people use cash. Domestic workers – we all think we must give them cash. That’s an area of intervention.”
The survey found that mobile money was leading digital platforms at 52 percent adoption, with 90 percent of individual customers holding more than one mobile money account. However, the research revealed a stark disconnect between account ownership and usage.
“We have hundreds of thousands of cards in the market, but only 20,000 cards are being used,” Mr Gasura said.
While 94 percent of respondents knew they should not share passwords, only 26 percent avoided using digital platforms in public spaces – a contradiction the researcher said required attention.
The study also found that 56 percent of respondents considered digital systems complicated, with people with disabilities particularly affected by infrastructure that was not accommodating.
On fraud, 15 percent reported experiencing incidents, though Mr Gasura cautioned that consumers often defined fraud broadly.
“If you buy a red dress online and they deliver a blue dress, they call it fraud,” he said. “Failure to meet expectation in this market is called fraud.”
Mr Gasura identified system reliability as the top priority, urging the industry to ensure “flawless” performance.
Other priority areas included strengthening mobile money cash-out infrastructure, improving accessibility, expanding merchant acceptance and establishing a formal dispute resolution mechanism.
“We are simply listening to the customer,” Mr Gasura said. “Based on this, what do you need to respond to?”
The research produced 10 priority recommendations for the industry, which Mr Gasura described as “the Ten Commandments.”
“System reliability is where you really have to come to the party,” he said.
The survey also found that 31 percent of respondents were open to using artificial intelligence in future, signalling potential for further innovation.
