HARARE – During the week ending 20th July 2018, the total value of transactions processed through the National Payments System (NPS) stood at US$2.96 billion, a decline from the US$2.97 billion recorded in the previous week, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has said.

According to RBZ economic weekly report, the value of transactions processed through the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, however, increased by 0.4%, to close the week under review at US$2.02 billion, representing 68.18% of the total value of transactions processed through the NPS.

Mobile transactions value for the week under review, totalled 23.16 percent at $684.60 million, a 1 percent decrease from $688.08 million recorded the previous week.

Point of sale (POS) had an aggregate share of 8.57 percent after $253.43 million transactions were recorded within the platform over the week.  This represents a decrease of 8 percent from the prior week total value of $276.18 million.

ATM and Cheque transactions contributed a marginal 0.06 percent and 0.03 percent at a respective value of $1.68 million and $0.94 million recorded in the week under review.

Meanwhile, transaction volumes processed through the NPS declined by 4.3%, to close the week under review at 41,693,605 transactions.

“The transactions volumes were distributed as follows: Mobile, 82.94%; POS, 16.69%; RTGS, 0.27%; ATM, 0.09% and Cheque 0.01%,” said RBZ.

The growth in alternative platforms use in banking has surged since the beginning of cash crisis a few years ago.

Monetary transactions in the Zimbabwean economy are now dominated by electronic payment systems with more than 90 percent of local transactions now being conducted through plastic, Internet and mobile money.

According to the data provided by the central bank, digital payments have been on an upward growth since last year, with 2017 recording a billion of electronic transactions.

“The growth in the use of plastic money, away from cash transactions, was phenomenal in 2017 to the extent that more than 96% of the $97.5 billion from the 1 billion transactions processed in the entire country in 2017 were through electronic and mobile banking systems,” said RBZ governor Dr John Mangudya.