Staff Writer 
ECONET Wireless Zimbabwe (Econet)’ s acquisition of financial technology (Fintech) businesses from its offshoot Ecocash Holdings (Ecocash) last year bolstered the group’s topline during the third quarter ended November 30, 2024.
The strong performance enabled the group to declare an interim dividend of US$0,36 cents per share.
Last year EcoCash transferred all its non-bank assets to Econet in return for the telecommunications firm’s shares.
The fintech firms acquired by the group are EcoCash Limited, VAYA Technologies Zimbabwe, Econet Insurance, Econet Life, MARS Zimbabwe and Maisha Health Fund. These became subsidiaries of the group with effect from March 1, 2024.
In its third quarter trading update, Econet attributed its 69 percent surge in revenue to “a 42 percent increase in revenue for the mobile network operations and the acquisition of the financial technology businesses.”
The mobile money business continued to register steady growth largely driven by a 55 percent increase in active subscribers and a 79 percent increase in wallet funding.
“This business continues to actively onboard more payment partners in alignment with the strategy to establish a universal payment platform that prioritizes convenience and value for customers. The growth in mobile money volumes and transactions reflects gains we continue to make towards improved financial inclusion,” the group said.
The life insurance business, EcoSure, recorded a 51 percent growth in transaction volumes compared to the same period last year as it continued to offer digital bundled products for a wider customer reach. Moovah, the short-term insurance business continued to grow its portfolio driven largely by new business acquisitions and endorsements which translated to a 25 percent increase in motor and non-motor insurance customers.
Concerning the group’s mobile network operations, voice and data usage for the quarter increased by 20 percent and 36 percent respectively.
“Demand for data is forecast to remain firm and on an upward trajectory.
“The envisaged growth in mobile broadband and digital services require the business to continue modernizing the network infrastructure to remain agile in its service offering and deliver the expected quality of service.
Econet’s capital expenditure on a year-to-date basis closed the quarter at 18 percent of revenue and was largely incurred on modernizing the network to support the growth in usage and improve service quality.
The group successfully completed upgrading the core network, marking a pivotal milestone of its digital service provider (DSP) journey. According to the group, this critical enhancement and modernisation effort has significantly improved the central part of the network, integrating systems such as charging, billing, and application servers in addition to enabling advanced digital and Artificial Intelligent features.
“The modernised network enables advanced digital use cases such as high-quality voice calls over 4G/LTE network (VoLTE). Smart4Home, our new fixed wireless product is being targeted at high-volume data users in response to evolving and growing data use needs.
“Base station modernisation efforts continued with 16 new sites and the upgrading of 33 radio access sites and 270 microwave access links. This has resulted in improved quality of service and speed,” the group said.
An additional 20, 5G sites were commissioned nationwide.
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