Zimbabwe's Econet says data, mobile money offset revenue fall

Econet Chief Finance Officer Roy Chimanikire said on Thursday in a briefing to analysts that total revenue was down one percent to $746 million from 2014.

The mobile operator with more than 9 million subscribers, said its income from voice calls fell 11 percent to $477 million and now accounted for 64 percent of total revenue, down from 76 percent in the prior year.

But revenue from data services grew 43 percent to $103 million as mobile phone users take to cheaper social media platforms like Whatsapp, which costs less than voice calls.

Econet had also been helped by its mobile money service Ecocash, which has 4.2 million customers and whose transactions reached $5.5 billion in 2015, up from $3.1 billion previously.

Zimbabwe's economy is slowing down and Econet said "all the manifestations of deflation are now fully evident", pointing to a liquidity crunch in the banking sector, company closures and unemployment in the formal sector as well as weak consumer.

SOURCE:REUTERS