This seems to be what is happening in the Ecocash saga. The government crackdown on Zimbabwe’s largest mobile money platform is being peddled as a blow to financial inclusion.
What is financial inclusion in the first place?
According to the World Bank, “financial inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered in a responsible and sustainable way.
“Being able to have access to a transaction account is a first step toward broader financial inclusion since a transaction account allows people to store money, and send and receive payments….”
There is no dispute that the advent of mobile money in Zimbabwe brought about financial inclusion. But Ecocash was in business not charity. It was there to make money. Its aim was not to provide an affordable service but to provide a service to as many people as possible.
To them it did not matter if a person had 20 mobile money accounts. This was business. And there was nothing wrong with that if people were doing honest business.
So what really happened? Why are some people upset by the crackdown?
According to Ecocash’s parent company, Smartech, the authorities issued seven directives which impacted on its operations. They were:
The daily limit is now $5 000. Is this too little? For whom?
If it is true that the average Zimbabwean lives on less than US$1.90 a day or $190 a day at a generous black market rate, is $5 000 a day too little for the average Zimbabwean?
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This post was last modified on October 18, 2020 11:06 am
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