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Telecel Zimbabwe said on Monday it has grown the subscriber base for its mobile money platform, TeleCash to one million almost two years after its launch.

The company, in which the Government recently acquired a 60 percent stake, marked its entry into the mobile money market at the end of January last year following in the footsteps of peers Econet and NetOne.

Telecel Zimbabwe said it was targeting to increase its subscriber base through a new system, dubbed TeleCash bundles, that allows subscribers to pay a once off monthly access fee to send and receive money as well as to pay bills.

Currently all the mobile money operators charge subscribers per transaction depending on the value of the bills paid as well as money sent or received.

“The TeleCash platform has just clocked a million users to date and Telecel expects the latest TeleCash bundles to grow the number of registered users even more,” company head of Mobile Financial Services, Arthur Matsaudza said.

“We expect our new TeleCash bundles to be a huge pull factor for more customers signing up to register on the TeleCash platform as the bundles will make transacting attractive due to their affordability.”

At the end of the first quarter this year, Telecel Zimbabwe had an active subscriber base of 1,9 million, more than half of who were estimated to be using TeleCash.

According to the industry regulator the Postal and Telecommunications Authority of Zimbabwe, the country had a total of 6,23 million mobile money subscribers in the first half of this year.

Mr Matsaudza said under the new bundle system, meant to attract new subscribers to TeleCash, subscribers would be allowed to send money, cash out and pay bills at no charge once they have paid a once-off monthly fee of either $2,50 or $5.

The $2,50 bundle will enable registered TeleCash subscribers to send money and cash out funds worth $500 to registered numbers at no charge while the $5 bundle allows subscribers to send money and receive $1 000. — New Ziana.