Zimbabwe:Mobile money transactions surge, RTGSs decline

JUNE 23,2014

DailyNews.

ZIMBABWE mobile money transactions increased by 11 percent in the week ended May 30, 2014 to $66 962 959, 51 from $60 551 078, 95 recorded prior week, latest central bank statistics reveal.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) said during the period under review, transactions processed through the real time gross settlement (RTGS) system decreased to $812 million in value from $853 million.

RTGS volumes declined by 17 percent from 49 100 transactions to  40 600 transactions.

On the other hand, cheque transactions slumped by 28 percent during the week from to $2 232 546 67 from $3 090 249 77.

Point of sale transactions decreased by 24 percent to $34 622 645,90 from
$45 280 591 970.

This comes as a recent RBZ report indicated that in the first week of April 2014, banking transactions processed through the RTGS system declined from  $1 billion to $887,4 million.

Cheque transactions went down 12 percent during the week to $1 921 883,05 from $2 195 554,20  the previous week. Mobile transactions grew by 55,6 percent to $87 905 481,26 from $56 036 715,73 while Automated Teller machines (ATMs) transactions surged 46 percent from $50 791 023 to $73 918 394,44.

Point of Sale transactions also grew significantly by 47 percent from $31 888 207,63 to $46 959 250,25 during the period under review.

The central bank also noted that interest rates for all classes of deposits remained unchanged as the liquidity crunch continues to prevail in the money market.