THE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed financial services provider, EcoCash Holdings, says the fintech business remains the largest contributor to its revenue, accounting for 80% of this year’s revenue increase.
PRISCA TSHUMA
Despite the macro-economic constraints, EcoCash Holdings Zimbabwe Limited’s revenue closed at ZW$29.9 billion, 26% above the ZW$23.8 billion recorded in 2021.
Eddie Chibi, the EcoCash chief executive, said the group deployed digital assets in the Steward Bank core banking system upgrade, which increased capacity in rolling out banking services and solutions.
“We have integrated with ZimSwitch, allowing us to expand our play in the local digital payments’ ecosystem,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Insurtech business contributed 14% to the revenue, a dip on the 15% from the prior year and VAYA Technologies added 6% to the increase.
“While the contribution largely came from Fintech, we are pleased to report growth across all our business units, which growth we are confident will be accelerated in the subsequent period,” Chibi said.
In spite of the positive outcome, the financial services provider had to navigate a challenging operating environment, which curtailed the performance of the company.
The group’s chairperson, Sherree Shereni, attributed the curtailment of the performance in the mobile money business to the constant depreciation of the local currency, regulatory inhibitions and the rising annual inflation, which was recorded at 285% in August this year.
“The growth of our Mobile Money business has been severely constrained due to regulated transaction limits, regulated tariffs, and the continued suspension of some of our revenue-generating services,” she said.
The company’s focus on cost optimisation improved its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin by 18% from the 15% recorded in 2021.
EcoCash Holdings improved its customer experience by launching its EcoCash *150# self-service platform which has given the customers the power to resolve issues such as pin resets, transaction reversals and getting e-statements which normally came through call-in traffic.
Going forward, the group aims to improve its cyber security systems.
