According to the third quarter performance report for the postal and telecommunications sector released by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (POTRAZ) Director-General, Dr Gift Machengete in Harare today, OneMoney had the highest market share in terms of active subscriptions.
“The mobile penetration rate increased by 3.4% to reach 88.2% from 84.8% recorded in the previous quarter. All the mobile operators recorded growth in active subscriptions. NetOne recorded the biggest growth in active subscriptions. This is according to quarterly comparison of the market share of active mobile subscribers. Econet and Telecel lost market share by 1.3% and 0.1% respectively whereas NetOne gained market share by 1.4%,” Dr. Machengete said.
NetOne recorded a 10.6 percent increase in subscriptions from 2 752 458 in the second quarter to 3 042 930 in the third quarter according to latest Postal and Telecommunications Sector performance report by regulatory authority Potraz.
Econet recorded a marginal 2.2 percent in subscriptions from 8 574 412 in the second quarter to 8 759 360 in the third quarter.
And Telecel had a 2.3 percent increase from 1 027 445 in the second quarter to 1 051 325 in the third quarter.
Recently, NetOne’s OneMoney indulged in a campaign to provide one money merchant codes to small retail outlets in the CBD to enable them to conduct transactions with their clients using OneMoney.
Netone announced that until 31 December 2019, transacting on OneMoney would be free of charge, outside of the 2% tax. That means purchasing in shops, buying airtime via OneMoney and sending money to other mobile money users will all come with no extra cost.
In terms of active mobile money subscriptions, OneMoney recorded the highest growth in active mobile money subscriptions.
Econet recorded 6 643 008 in the second quarter to 6 707 225 in the third quarter representing a 1 percent increase while Telecash had 54 190 subscriptions in the second quarter to 54 399 in the third quarter posting 0.4 percent and One Money recorded 335 132 in the second quarter to 428 529 subscriptions in the third quarter.
Dr Machengete attributed this to the adoption of mobile money which he said has been continuously improving as mobile money provides a convenient alternative to making payments given the current cash shortages.