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Financial Technology is rapidly advancing innovation in financial services with new risks and emerging threats and new business models and technology use cases. As a result, Zimbabwe has witnessed a fair share of Fintech growth in several areas, especially in insurance, payments and trading, including the revolution in cryptocurrency.
Related: Top FinTech Companies In Cameroon
How is Fintech In Zimbabwe?
Given the potential of Fintech to enhance efficiencies, reduced the cost of doing business and facilitate the inclusion of the base of the pyramid, the Reserve Bank is spearheading the development of a National Fintech framework to guide the adoption implementation and regulation of Fintech in the financial services sector.
The Covid-19 pandemic is speeding up the pace of digitalisation of financial services, Nedbank Zimbabwe managing director Sibongile Moyo told The Africa Report.
To date, fintech in Zimbabwe is largely a story of digital payments. Driven by a range of factors, including the macroeconomic situation, cash shortages and aggressive marketing by Econet, the volume of digital payments grew from 38 million in 2012 to 367 million in 2016 and then accelerated to 1.96 billion in 2018.
Top Fintech Companies In Zimbabwe
1. Paynow
Paynow is one of the leading fintech companies in Zimbabwe. Given their commitment to serve, they have been able to serve thousands of Zimbabwe’s population. Paynow clients and working groups are not limited to businessmen and women, companies and organizations, and innovative developers. With Paynow, you can clear all your bills with ease using MasterCard, visa, Telecash and Ecocash.
As a fintech company, Paynow has been able to find ways of accelerating the growth of electronic payments and e-commerce businesses. As a result, Paynow’s SDKs, APIs, plugins, extensions and widgets are a trending method of making payments to e-commerce marketplaces, businesses and individuals.
2. Ecocash
EcoCash, is a mobile phone-based money transfer, financing and microfinancing service launched in 2011 by Econet Wireless for its customers in Zimbabwe. Users can also redeem stored mobile money for cash. A fee for each service is deducted directly from the account stored on the mobile phone and accessed using a PIN.
Ecocash is a mobile payment service that Econet clients access. It allows its customer to make financial transactions like sending and receiving money, paying for goods and services, purchasing airtime and data, sending money to your bank account, allows you to be in charge of your Ecocash account. You are free to save money with Ecocash. In addition, there is access to loans. You can also secure online payments and also makes it possible to receive money from Diaspora.
To register with Ecocash, you need to find any nearby Ecocash agent operator who is authorized, complete your application form, and start transacting. Ecocash has several services and products; scan And pay, Ecocash Diaspora, Ecocash express debit card, Ecocash debit card, Ecocash save, Ecocash Ta and many others.
3. E-tranzact
E-tranzact is a fintech company that works across countries in Africa, Zimbabwe inclusive. It is Nigeria-based and has been in operation since 2003. It has readily spread to countries outside Nigeria like; Ghana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Ivory Coast.
E-tranzact has several products that help it process virtual payments within and across different regions, for example, ATM, POS, mobile and internet.
E-tranzact provides its service to the majority of the populations who are not banked, and its payments are usually delivered through mobile money and other easy-to-use and accessible packages, as already mentioned in some of the products.
4. Zimswitch
Zimswitch is in the tier of fintech in Zimbabwe. Zimswitch allows you to do all kinds of transactions, including online shopping.
ZimSwitch was formed in 1994 by a partnership of 6 Financial Institutions, namely Beverley, Barclays, CABS, Founders Building Society (ZBBs), Stanbic and Zimbank (ZB Bank). CBZ and TimeBank joined in 1995 and 1997, respectively. ZimSwitch is the sole national electronic funds switch for Zimbabwe. The company processes domestic card-based ATM and POS transactions amongst member financial institutions in real-time online.
Zimswitch offers you the kind of financial flexibility you would like to have delivered by the most trusted products and services like; mobile (ZIPIT), POS, internet, ATM and many others. With these, you can clear your financial needs anywhere in Zimbabwe.
5. Instapay
Instapay allows you to make and clear payments using a mobile wallet, visa, MasterCard and many more.
Instapay is a mobile payments solution from Afrosoft Zimbabwe that you can use to buy airtime and electricity using Ecocash and Telecash. In addition, it brings ZESA tokens to Ecocash and Telecash on the cheap.
The most amazing thing about Instapay is that you can easily transact in three simplified steps, so you need to log in to your account, select the transaction you want to make and make the payment. Payments options available for you include; Ecocash cards, MasterCard and Telecash.
6. Bitmari
Founded by Christopher mapondela and Sinclair skinner in 2013, Bitmari is one of the payment solutions African communities have enjoyed. Bitmari compliments the local financial services in Zimbabwe.
BitMari.com is a pan African remittance platform for facilitating money remittance using Bitcoin technology from the diaspora to African countries. This service enables overseas senders to send funds to recipients in Africa, such as Zimbabwe.
Bitmari targets Zimbabwe’s population, especially people who are not banked and don’t have access to banks using blockchain, mobile phones, and the internet, enabling them to process faster, affordable and transparent financial transactions.
To protect people of the African Diaspora, Bitmari operates around the globe building a global network that protects black people from harm, xenophobia and racism.
7. Bitfinance / Golix.io
Bitfinance is one of Zimbabwe’s fintech startups. With the Bitcoin exchange venture, they have helped revive the economy of Zimbabwe by offering the best, most affordable and cheapest financial transactions. They rebranded as Golix.io with intentions of widening to cover more digital currencies on its platform. Bitfinance is used by other 3rd party subscribers to trade in bitcoin.
Bitfinance works to give financial autonomy to residents of Zimbabwe so that natives can easily trade in bitcoin and solve some of their monetary problems as it hopes to open up more branches in other countries in Africa.
8. Zimbocash
This is one of the newly launched blockchain tokens to decentralize the currency network in Zimbabwe. As a result, users are free to exchange and make transactions. To build a network of users who use ZASH in day-to-day trade in Zimbabwe, zimbocash has introduced incentives to appreciate its users, especially for users who make a good number of transactions.
Zimbabwe residents are now free to buy airtime, pay for goods and services, and make transactions using ZASH, a product of zimbocash.
9. Capital factor
Are you a Zimbabwe native looking for a startup to finance their business? It would help if you looked at capital factor. It has helped bridge financial gaps between people in the country, and it has been able to unlock their value through the support given to the growth of their businesses.
Capital factor allows accessing finance through debt factoring without requiring you to bring assets or security.
Factoring involves businesses selling invoices or receivables to a factor that then collects payments on invoices from the business customers; it is commonly known as accounts receivable financing; most companies use it because they can easily get cash on their receivables waiting for a long time. Their services are not limited to anyone, including companies in the health sector, transport and logistics, manufacturing, wholesale and distribution, construction companies, and security companies.
10. whatsEco
This is an online platform that allows users to make cash transactions through Ecocash. WhatsEco transacts money using a WhatsApp Chatbot. To get started with WhatsEco, you need first to download the whatsEco app from the Google Play Store, enter the required registration details and then start a chatbot conversation then type send money and enter the number of the person you are sending out to USSD codes will then pop dialed by the bot.
With WhatsEco, you can complete several transactions, including sending money, making bulk payments, pay school fees, pay the merchant and cashouts; there is a lot more you can do with whatsECo.
Conclusion.
Hey Entrepreneurs, Zimbabwe is still a good ground for exploring, especially in the fintech world, so what are you waiting for? Go and explore! African fintech that can deliver working solutions for Covid-19 conditions looks poised for sustained growth.
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