The Sunday News
Wilson Dakwa, Business Reporter
STATE-OWNED mobile telecommunication firm, NetOne has managed to link its OneMoney debit card with all Zimswitch Instant Payment Interchange Technology (ZIPIT) registered banks.
Responding to e-mailed questions, NetOne acting chief executive officer Mr Clever Isaya said the mobile company was moving towards a complete financial ecosystem where every financial institution is connected to OneMoney.
“All banks are now connected via ZIPIT and the platform has a total number of 19 banks. All the major retailers are also integrated, hence, our customers can use the OneMoney debit card across all retails outlets with a Zimswitch ready point of sale.
“Mobile connectivity is growing in Zimbabwe, hence we are creating financial ecosystem where every Zimbabwean enjoy affordable and convenient financial services.
Customers can use the debit card across Zimbabwe at any retailer who has a Zimswitch enabled POS machine,” said Mr Isaya.
ZIPIT enables people to send funds instantly from a Zimswitch member bank to another member bank. The interbank instant money transfer service platform also enables a person to transfer funds from the bank to the mobile wallet.
Mr Isaya added that uptake of the telecommunication firm’s mobile money service was high as more 600 000 customers had since registered with NetOne since the launch of OneMoney.
“We are now pushing our OneMoney services through a robust channel network that includes our partners in the form of agents and thousands of our orange brigades, the brand ambassadors. The exercise has helped us to register over 600 000 new customers on the platform since the launch, in less than a month. This is by far the greatest uptake for a service in Zimbabwe at the moment,” he said.
He also anticipated exponential growth given that about 90 percent of customers on OneFusion have signed up for OneMoney.
He added that OneFusion tariffs were reduced to $3 so as to complement Government’s thrust towards digital and financial inclusion. Mr Isaya said the company has also introduced a $10 million OneTech project that will help in the provision of more data based services.
“We introduced OneTech as part of our strategy in driving data uptake, we partnered with BancABC on a $10 million facility to avail affordable handset and devices to Zimbabweans.
“The various services which we have introduced are clear demonstrations of our guiding principle in customer centricity which is one of our strategic objectives,” he said. -@WilsonDakwa1
