eBusiness Weekly
BH24 Reporter
HARARE – Transaction volumes for the country’s national payment system (NPS) continue to improve as financial inclusion continues to improve.
The Government, through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, promulgated the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (2016 – 2020) aimed at increasing the overall access to financial services in the country.
The key goal of the strategy is to boost the country’s banked adult population from 30 percent in 2014 to over 60 percent by 2020.
According to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s latest weekly report, the value of transactions processed through the NPS for the week ending March 23, 2018 increased by 21 percent from $2 billion in the previous week to $2, 4 billion on the back of a surge in Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transactions.
An acute shortage of bank notes has forced Zimbabweans to resort to electronic means of payment.
The RBZ report also showed that the RTGS transactions increased by 25 percent to $1, 7 billion, accounting for 73, 48 percent of the value of transactions processed through the NPS.
Mobile-based transactions increased 8 percent to $441, 34 million from $410, 38 million while Point Of Sale (POS) was up 16 percent from $170, 24 million to $197, 02 million.
Automated Teller Machine (ATM) transactions went up four percent from $3, 14 million to $3, 26 million while cheque transactions declined nine percent to $1, 02 million from $1, 11 million reported in the previous week.
In terms of volumes, mobile based transactions accounted for 79, 17 percent while POS took up 20, 17 percent.
The report showed that RTGS, ATMs and Cheque were at 0, 38 percent, 0, 26 percent and 0, 02 percent respectively.
