HARARE – The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) on Saturday appeared to climbdown on a government move to freeze all mobile money transactions.
Government spokesman Ndabaningi Mangwana on Friday issued a statement purporting to suspend the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and freeze all mobile money transactions, accusing telecoms firms of “sabotaging the economy.”
The move prompted a standoff with mobile money services who in turn issued statements insisting they remained operational. EcoCash said it would only comply with directives from the Reserve Bank.
Facing warnings of a potential catastrophe given the dominance of mobile money, the central bank appears to have partially backed down. In a statement, the RBZ outlined qualifiers suggesting the general public would be unaffected as “bona-fide transactions will be processed normally.”
The restrictions will now only apply to mobile agents and merchants. Mobile agents are suspended together with merchant accounts which will only be allowed to receive payments for goods and services and utilities such as power and water with a Z$5,000 (US$47) daily limit.
It is unclear if the Z$5,000 limit applies to the receiving merchant account or payer. Either way, the move will cause significant inconvenience to the transacting public with merchants either unable to accept payments due to the limit or buyers failing to make full payment.
Analysts have warned that the restrictions could worsen the decline of the Zimbabwe dollar as they increase the cost of doing business in the currency which is largely digital.
There is still no additional guidance on the stock market which was also purportedly suspended.
