adminBusiness Correspondent
STEWARD Bank is currently promoting its Ecocash debit master card to Small to Medium Enterprises to encourage a banking culture. In an interview on Monday with Steward Bank customer service personnel, Mr Evans Paradza, at the handover ceremony of vending equipment to Coca-cola vendors, he said the Ecocash debit master card programme linked the Ecocash wallet account, Steward Bank account and master card.
The initiative, he said, was meant to complement the Government’s plastic money economy drive as well as encourage a banking savings culture in SME players as they formalise their operations.
“We noticed that most people now keep their money in their Ecocash account which means people want to save money but developed a banking phobia from past Zimbabwe dollar experiences during the hyper-inflation era.
“We now want to make use of our Ecocash platform and further convenience them through the debit master card, which will automatically link their Steward Bank account and master card,” said Mr Paradza.
He said for only $2 to buy the master card one would have opened a bank account and could use their master card at any swipe machine or point of sale machine.
Steward Bank, formerly known as TN Bank, was fully acquired by Zimbabwe’s largest telecoms firm, Econet Wireless, in January 2013 and has been undergoing transformation ever since.
This year the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe pushed the minimum capitalisation targets of US$50 million for commercial banks to end of 2020, of which Steward Bank is one of the few local banks that had already achieved the capitalisation threshold.
Steward Bank, which is well capitalised to the tune of $75,1 million as at February 2013, is ranked among the country’s top five banks in terms of capitalisation.
Online Reporter