The massive growth in Zimbabwe’s ambitious mobile telecoms sector has triggered a significant increase in the use of electronic banking (e-banking), a top banker has said.
e-banking, which revolves around the use of internet or on-line banking, has been driven by easy mobile phone internet access in the past few months, backed by surging penetration rates.
“We have noticed that there is a significant increase in the number of e-banking transactions compared to conventional banking,” Bankers Association of Zimbabwe (BAZ) president John Mushayavanhu said.
“The beauty about this country is that the reach of telecoms is so widespread such that there is hardly any growth point (without) a network. I think we are moving towards Kenya,” he said.
Kenya is seen as a model of mobile telecoms success in Africa.
SMS banking
“We have done statistics for our bank and we found that transactions made outside the banking (halls) are now more than banking hall (transactions), said the BAZ chief, who is the managing director of FBC Bank. He said most balance enquiries were now being carried out via SMS banking. The BAZ president said e-banking was as secure as conventional banking.
“e-banking is very secure because there is no human intervention. Once you start a transaction, it completes on its own, whereas where there is human intervention its prone to error and manipulation, so e-banking is very secure,” he said.
“These are proven systems, they have firewalls and hackers cannot temper with them. Before banks commission such systems, tests are carried out. It only becomes insecure if you disclose your password or pin to others,” he added.
Security of e-banking has come under scrutiny internationally as many individuals and corporations have lost millions of dollars to internet hackers.
No cases of e-banking fraud have so far been publicly reported in Zimbabwe. At least 9.2mn people are now hooked on Zimbabwe’s three mobile phone networks.
Broadband services
Telecoms companies including Powertel, Africom, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe and most recently, Telecel Zimbabwe, have launched broadband services which allow users to access internet services anywhere where there is network.
Easy access to mobile phones services and the internet through broadband by consumers has resultantly spiraled benefits to banking institutions as clients are no longer forced to visit banking halls, but can now transact outside their banks.
The majority of Zimbabwe’s banks have introduced e-banking as an alternative service delivery channel.
Analysts have however noted that there was still limited knowledge and mistrust of e-banking by users who still opt to visit banks, mainly due to security fears and privacy issues. Some businesses have also remained skeptical of the technology, preferring to send people to physically deal with the banks.
Barnabas Thondhlana
