Mobile money limits capped at $10

Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
SOME mobile money transfer service agents in Bulawayo have capped cash-out limits to a maximum of $10 per transaction as the cash crisis intensifies.

The mobile money transfer service sector is dominated by Econet through EcoCash while NetOne and Telecel offer OneWallet and Telecash respectively.

A snap survey carried by Business Chronicle yesterday showed that some mobile money transfer agents in the city had capped their cash-out limits to a maximum of $10 per transaction unlike in the past where customers would cash out to a maximum of $500 per transaction with a daily limit of $1 000.

An EcoCash agent along Herbert Chitepo Avenue said: “I am only allowing customers to cash-out $10 per transaction because of the cash crisis that has intensified in the past few days,” said the agent preferring not to be named.

Another EcoCash agent who also refused to be named said they had capped the cash-out limits to a maximum of $10 per transaction as a way of trying to service all their customers.

“We are doing this as a way of trying to ensure that all our clients have access to cash,” said the agent.

A tele-cash agent said her business has been low since the cash crisis began.

“The volume of my transactions per day has gone down drastically to the extent that I hardly process transactions amounting to $100 a day. In the past, I used to process transactions worth about $300 a day.

“As long as I have the money, customers can cash out the required amount,” she said.

Due to the cash shortages the country has been experiencing since April, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has encouraged the transacting public to use plastic money and electronic payment systems.

The central bank has blamed the cash crisis on massive externalisation, low exports and hoarding of the United States dollar which is on high demand because of its strengthening value against regional currencies.

The monetary authorities have since come up with a raft of measures aimed at curbing externalisation of the US dollar.

@okazunga