Econet Wireless and the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) have entered into a partnership which will enable EcoCash users to pay tollgate fees using the platform.
By BUSINESS REPORTER
The new system will be available at 20 tollgates across Zimbabwe before being rolled out country wide.
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe chief executive officer Douglas Mboweni said the service would help travelling motorists to experience the convenience of using EcoCash while providing Zinara with a safe, secure and convenient revenue collection method.
Mboweni applauded the project teams from both EcoCash and Zinara for working hard to leverage technology to meet a national need.
He said the project was an example of the power of public private partnerships (PPP) in providing relevant solutions towards the development of the country.
“We appreciate Zinara for their cooperation and commitment which has seen the deal coming into fruition today,” Mboweni said.
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EcoCash general manager Natalie Jabangwe-Morris said her organisation wanted to support the government and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s efforts in ensuring financial inclusion by providing ease of transacting for all citizens everywhere.
“The state of the art value proposition is not the ordinary Pay Merchant, but a specific solution unique to Zinara, which allows users to link a mobile phone wallet with a registered vehicle for auto-detection and instant access at the tollgate,” she said.
“The auto detection of the pre-loaded toll wallet at toll gate offers complete disruption to the manual payment method of cash and cards, saving motorists queuing time with a payment experience of under 10 seconds granting express toll access to motorists.”
Currently tollgate fees are pegged at $2 for light vehicles and $3 for minibuses whilst buses, heavy vehicles and haulage trucks pay $4, $5 and $10 respectively.
Last year, Zinara acquired the prepaid tolling system from Univern Enterprises a Zimbabwean-registered firm, which also trades as Southern Region Trading Company (SRTC). The prepaid toll gate card which provides motorists with a card payment alternative at its toll gates will still be operational.
Zinara chief executive officer Nancy Masiyiwa-Chamisa said the development was an important integration into the road authority’s platforms that will create a seamless mechanism for Zimbabweans to easily transact and thereby traverse the country’s road infrastructure.
In 2016, government directed key parastatals to promote the adoption of various virtual money platforms.
“To this end we have implemented and launched the Zinara prepaid toll card, which works at all toll gates and border post country wide point of sale machines to swipe transactions at all Zinara offices and tolling points.
“EcoCash is our largest and most exciting addition to the basket of cashless transactions. This new development will continue to drive our service delivery mandate for customer convenience and efficiency,” Masiyiwa-Chamisa.
