Econet Wireless has predicted that Zimbabweans will stop using “paper money” by the end of next year as people adopt cards to transact.
Econet, which is at the forefront of introducing plastic money in the country, has already invested in more than 5 000 point-of-sale (POS) devices in businesses throughout the country to ensure that people can use their cards when paying for goods and services.
The company, which is the country’s largest mobile network operator with about 9 million customers, has already announced plans to release MasterCard enabled debit cards to its more than 3.5 million EcoCash customers. It also eventually plans to double to 10 000 the number of POS terminals over the next few months to its network of more than 13 000 EcoCash agents.
“We do not expect anyone to still be using paper money in a year’s time. It will be just like Europe or America, where you no longer see people carrying bundles of cash,” said Econet Wireless Zimbabwe CEO Douglas Mboweni.
The EcoCash MasterCard debit card has been designed to completely replace the use of paper money in everyday buying and selling of goods, he said.
Mr Mboweni said Econet is determined to make Zimbabwe totally cashless. “We see this as the end of paper money in this country,” he said.
