What is this nonsense about crackdown on mobile money transfers in Zimbabwe being blow to financial inclusion?

Every Zimbabwean is still entitled to one mobile money wallet, so in what way are they excluded?

Teachers are complaining that their salary of at least $12 500 is too little. But they can withdraw the whole amount in three days. So is $5 000 a day too low for them? Are they excluded?

Even if they were to be paid the US$520, that they are clamouring for. This would be about $42 600. They can withdraw that in 8 eight days, so how are they excluded?

In fact the whole debate seems to ignore the fact that there are other banking services which have no restrictions. If you have money why not use your bank card? Why not make bank transfers?

The authorities were right to crack down on Ecocash because it had become a law unto itself. It had become a central bank of its own. It had created a currency of its own. Ecocash was trading at a discount to the Zimbabwe dollar when the money in the phone was supposed to be Zimbabwe dollars. Worse still Ecocash refused to comply with the regulations that applied to all other financial institutions.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa said it had created $8.4 billion phantom money. Ecocash has not refuted this. Which government in its right senses would allow this?

Mnangagwa said someone without any source of income was trading $86 million a day. Which country would allow this to continue and someone has the audacity to tell us that cracking down on such a person is a blow to financial inclusion. What kind of crap is this?

Eddie Cross said Ecocash traded $3.8 billion in February alone and when the central bank asked Ecocash to reduce the amount its agents could transact to $10 million a month, Ecocash complained that this was too little.

Was this not pure arrogance? Which country would allow some operator to defy the country’s central bank?

The agents lost their jobs indeed but were they doing people a service? Perhaps at the beginning but they soon became greedy. How could someone claim to be offering a service by telling you that the $140 in your phone was actually only $100?

And who was worst affected by this greed? The rural people who some are claiming to speak on behalf of because they needed cash.

Please, people should not camouflage propaganda for Ecocash or Econet by hiding behind the plight of the ordinary person.

Anyone can still use Ecocash to keep their money. In fact, the crackdown has done Zimbabweans a favour. For a change keeping your money in your phone now makes sense because it gains value. Previously, people were forced to use it because it was losing value by the day.

The crackdown has not excluded anybody.  It has just shut out the criminals.

Instead of whining, people should be urging the monetary policy committee to crackdown on the Old Mutual Implied Rate.

See also 12 myths oppressors use to keep people subjugated

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