MOBILE money transfer Ecocash which was put under sanctions by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, who imposed a daily cap of $5,000 which is worth less than USD$50 on the black, got a reprieve after a slight relaxation.
Ecocash made the announcement through SMSs telling subscribers and users of the product of the adjustment which allows users to use their weekly limit of $35000 one day.
“Good News, EcoCash individual spending limit is now ZW$35,000 per week. You can use up this limit in 1 or more days. The limit per each transaction is ZW$5,000,” advised Econet.
Once one exhausts their weekly limit in one or two days, they will not be able to perform another transaction during the same week.
Owing to cash shortages, plastic and mobile money had become a big hit in the country, to cover the gap created by the shortages.
However, arbitrage opportunities and speculation on the market led to the abuse of mobile money especially in driving the foreign exchange rate, forcing government to act by reducing the transactional limits to $5000 a day.
Since the introduction of the limits the black-market foreign currency exchange rate has maintained some stability hovering around USD$1 for $100.
