EcoCash, Africa’s second largest mobile money provider with 3.7m users, is to offer customers in Zimbawe a MasterCard debit card linked to their EcoCash wallet. This will enable them to use the funds in their mobile money account to make payments at merchant POS terminals and withdraw cash from ATMs.

Customers will also be able to use the ConnectMoney platform to request virtual cards, delivered via SMS, that they can use to charge ecommerce purchases to their mobile money accounts.

“With this offering, merchants will have the convenience of accepting payments from mobile money accounts and increase transactions, while the service provider will witness an uptake in payments and enhanced revenues,” EcoCash parent Econet Wireless and technology provider Mahindra Comviva say.