Zimpost money transfers hit $4m monthly

Zimpost is now handling over $4 million in third party financial transactions per month since it launched its money transfer service in 2013, Zimpost managing director Douglas Zimbango has said.

The company launched its local and international money transfer service, Zipcash, in October 2013 and Zimbango said today that the service was growing.

“The Zipcash brand has been experiencing real growth from its inception especially given that we continue to add more countries to the list of corresponding administrations,” Zimbango said.

“This is so because Zipcash offers the most affordable transfers on the market. The downside, however, is access but we are currently working with our technology partners so that Zipcash is available 24/7 so as to compete effectively with other money transfer services.

“The remittance market into Zimbabwe is about $300 million according to 2014 statistics and our aim as Zimpost is to process a minimum of 10 percent of this.”

Zimbango, however, said they are currently far from reaching their annual target revenue of $36 million because of the first mover advantage of the other remittance companies which are well established in the source markets.

“Our breakthrough will come when we have concluded negotiations with the United Kingdom, United States and other Diaspora destinations,” he said.

Zimbango said the idea with Zipcash is to connect with all 192 member countries of the Universal Postal Union but added approvals take time to conclude because of various legislations in the partner administrations.

Zimpost signed an international money transfer service agreement with Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa, Malawi, Nigeria, Kenya and United Arab Emirates (UAE) postal services to move cash between the countries. Currently, they are at testing stage with Kenya, Nigeria, UAE and Uganda.

He lamented that as a company in transition, their diversification strategy has suffered from lack of funding.

Volumes have dropped by 86 percent since 2000 due to break-neck changes in technology, though revenue has been steady at $20 million annually.

Last year, Zimbango said on average Zimpost was handling 50 000 transactions per month with a value of $3 million. It was also moving about 11.6 million domestic letters, 2.3 million international mail and about 30 000 parcels per year.

Currently, Zimpost offers agency services to among others the Zimbabwe National Road Authority , POSB, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, NicozDiamond, Champions Insurance, NSSA, ZB Bank, FBC, AfrAsia Bank, NetOne, Econet, Telecel, Emali, Nettcash, Powertel, Grain Marketing Board and the Central Vehicle Registry.- The Source

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