Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya said Econet Wireless has to deal with its EcoCash agents who have been engaged in the rampant abuse of the mobile money facility.
Speaking to The Herald Finance and Business on Tuesday, Mangudya revealed that he is preoccupied with the EcoCash issue to find the best way forward. He said:
Econet should help us monitor and control the conduct of this segment of the financial services market because for Econet, this is their road (platform) and some roads need humps, others have traffic lights while others have detours; Econet must help us because this is their road.
Econet must play a part, given that for instance, if you exceed the regulated speed on a highway, you risk being slapped with fines for flouting road rules and regulations; these are issues of governance and Econet needs to help foster discipline on their platform among its agents.
On Monday, the RBZ instructed mobile money operators to suspend cash-in and cash-out transactions. The central bank said the platforms were being abused so much that the value of mobile money balances had been reduced to a fraction of their real worth.