HARARE – NetOne took a bold step to profit from Econet’s troubles with its mobile money service, EcoCash, by scrapping all transaction fees on its OneMoney platform.
Customers using the OneMoney service will only pay the statutory 2 percent tax on transactions until December 31, NetOne CEO Lazarus Muchenje announced on Monday.
NetOne, the second biggest mobile phone company after Econet, is also offering 1GB of free data for customers who fund their mobile money wallets with ZWL$500, and 50 percent discount if customers use OneMoney to buy airtime.
“We’ve introduced zero rated transactions on all OneMoney transactions except the statutory 2 percent tax and card swiping charges. This means that when you send money, there’s no fees; when you receive money there’re no fees; when you purchase airtime, there’ no fees; when you cash-out, there’re no fees; and when you buy at the shop using the merchant code, there’re no fees,” Muchenje told a news conference.
“People must not pay to get these services. It should be free,” Muchenje added at the promotion launch, although the fees waiver is only valid until the end of the year.
EcoCash, which controls over 90 percent of the mobile money market, has suffered over a week of disruption after taking down its network for an upgrade on November 16. The upgrade did not go according to plan, as customers continue to complain that they cannot transact or that money is mysteriously disappearing from their wallets.
