ollarisation brought with it a swathe of investment by operators, rolling out new products and capacity to a population hungry to communicate.

 If any country was ready for a mobile-money explosion, it was Zimbabwe.

With dollarisation in 2009 came a complex mixture of multiple currencies whereby the dollar, rand and pula are all legal tender, and shopkeepers lacking small change hand out IOU slips for tiny amounts.

Although Econet Wireless was not the first operator to launch a mobile money product on the Zimbabwean market – government-owned NetOne launched OneWallet in January 2011 – its EcoCash product has seen a remarkable take-up, with over a million subscribers signing up in the first six months since September. Read More