NetOne rebrands struggling mobile money platform

Published: 17 October 2017

State owned mobile telecommunications firm, Net One has rebranded its struggling mobile money platform, OneWallet to OneMoney amid hopes that it will perform better.

Having earlier announced that it would invest up to $2 million in the reconfiguration and rebranding of the mobile money platform, NetOne said OneMoney, like other competitor platforms, the hugely popular Ecocash and Telecash, will also now come with a ZimSwitch linked debit card.

Launched in 2011 and relaunched in 2013, One Wallet failed to take off as expected, only to be overtaken by Ecocash and TeleCash operated by mobile telecommunication firms, Econet and Telecel respectively which came to the market at a later.

Statistics released by the telecommunications sector regulator in the first half of the year showed that Ecocash, at 3.2 million subscribers dominated the mobile money sector, followed by Telecash with around 52 000 subscribers and lastly One Wallet with just over 10 000 subscribers.

NetOne said: "OneMoney is a new mobile financial service that allows NetOne customers to enjoy everyday financial transactions. OneMoney allows you to do more at the least cost and when set up, a One Money account can be linked to a ZimSwitch enabled debit card."

And according to the tariffs released by the telecoms operator, One Money currently offers the lowest transacting rates for sending and receiving money.

Besides the debit card, One Money will also allow users to buy and send airtime, pay utility bills and has a payroll function for companies to pay salaries.

It remains to be seen how the enhanced and rebranded mobile platform will fare given the dominance of Ecocash, the name now synonymous with mobile money transfers.

Current cash shortages and growing usage of alternative payment platforms however present an opportunity for Net One if it is able to effectively manage and convince its nearly five million active subscribers to use its mobile money platform.

- New Ziana

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