Plastic money for tollgates

Over 3000 local motorists are using pre-paid toll cards that were rolled out by the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) early last year, at a time when the road authority is close to rolling out Point of Sale machines at all tollgates nationwide.
Zimbabwe is going through cash shortages and several Government agencies are introducing cashless payment systems in order to circumvent the situation.

Under the system, motorists purchase a pre-paid toll card that is debited through a machine by the cashier at a toll plaza along the highway.

The cards can be topped up using mobile money platforms such as EcoCash and TeleCash to increase convenience.

The cards are being sold for US$1 at all Zinara offices countrywide.
The Sunday Mail understands that under Phase One of the roll-out, which now only awaits approval from banks, all toll gates, except those on the Plumtree-Harare-Mutare highway, will have the system in place.
Phase Two will round up all the 26 tollgates in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has an estimated vehicle population of close to 1,2 million.
Last week, Zinara board chair Mr Albert Mugabe said the introduction of POS machines at toll gates “will allow motorists to swipe their way through tollgates.

“A pre-paid toll card can be purchased for a dollar at all Zinara offices and motorists can put money into the card through payment systems such as EcoCash and TeleCash and use it to pay toll fees instead of cash.
“In terms of the pre-paid toll card, the roll out has already begun.

“I think there are about 3 000 motorists who are already using the card, which is available at all Zinara offices.

“We urge motorists to purchase the cards as they allow them to link to other plastic money services.”
He said the POS machines will be available at all tollgates soon.

“With regards to Point of Sale machines, banks have been a bit slow in issuing out the machines as per our request but in the next few weeks, everything should be in place.”

Migration to the pre-paid facilities was initially driven by the need for a transparent system that would raise the levels of accountability on all revenues collected through the toll gates.

Now it is being expedited by the cash shortages.
The pre-paid tolling system was acquired from Univern Enterprises, a Zimbabwean-registered firm, which also trades as Southern Region Trading Company.

Government last year approved the construction of 10 new tollgates across the country and out of those, only four were constructed.

Light vehicles, mini-buses, long chassis buses and haulage trucks pay US$2, US$3, US$4 and US$10 respectively when passing through each tollgate.

Tollgates where introduced by Government as a measure to raise funding for maintenance and construction of new road infrastructure.

In 2015, Zinara’s road fund raised US$133 million while US$203 million was targeted for last year.