Harare – Zimbabwe’s largest mobile money operator, EcoCash has launched a mobile centric bureau de change in a move that is meant to ease forex dealings pressure for its clients.

Since October last year following the separation of local RTGS balances and foreign currency balances through the creation of Nostro FCAs, government has embarked on a series of monetary policy changes chief among them the introduction of the interbank exchange market and the implementation of SI142 as the government seeks to put parity in the foreign currency exchange market.

Lack of foreign currency on the market and the issue of high premiums has somewhat remained the biggest obstacles within the exchange markets with most ordinary persons trading on the parallel market.

Speaking at the launch of the new innovation, EcoCash CEO Mrs Natallie Jabangwe boasted that the platform known as “the smart change money” is one of the world’s first mobile bureaus and is said to be the largest on the continent by coverage.

Mrs Jabangwe said that the introduction of “the smart change money” will go a long way in providing solutions to some of the challenges faced by its clients in foreign currency dealings.

“A lot of our customers were saying to us we’re sick and tired of the premiums that we’re finding on the market and now that we have an interbank rate but when we want to change money on the black market it’s really costing us,” she said.

The platform will allow users to convert foreign currency held in EcoCash FCA’s into local RTGS balances a rate of the day with the mobile money giant offering an opening lucrative exchange rate at 10.8.

In addition to offering competitive rates, the service also offers other benefits including Real Time Exchange to EcoCash ZW$ wallet, transfer forex from bank to wallet 24/7, safety and security, no high premiums linked to interbank and conveniently change money 24/7.

Analysts say the central bank is likely to milk increased flow of foreign currency through the latest entry of Ecocash into the forex exchange market, while cautioning that rates might scale upwards in response.

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