Zamtel Kwacha scraps fees to aid fight against COVID 19

20/03/202020/03/2020 TechTrends

Zamtel has today announced that it has scrapped charges on all mobile money peer to peer transactions in order to promote the use of Mobile Money and therefore help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The waiver of fees is part of the response to ongoing measures meant to promote use of digital payment solutions and discourage the use of physical cash.

The move followed discussions with the Bank of Zambia and other stakeholders and is being undertaken as a precautionary measure in the wake of COVID19 pandemic.

On Wednesday 17th March 2020, The Ministry of Health announced that Zambia had recorded its first two cases of COVID19.

The new policies will come into effect immediately and will be reviewed in consultation with the Bank of Zambia.

Under the new rules, all on-net peer to peer transactions will not carry any charge. The maximum transaction limits and balance levels for all types of customers have also been increased in consultation with the Bank of Zambia.

Zamtel Chief Executive Officer Sydney Mupeta said, “Citizens should take advantage of the removal of all charges on Zamtel Kwacha and use this digital payment platform for all their transactions”.

Mr Mupeta also announced that Zamtel Kwacha and ZamPay will soon be on boarding additional merchants across all sectors to ensure customers have enough points of access to goods and services as they store e-value in their wallets.

“Our customers will notice that from today (Friday) any money sent via Zamtel Kwacha will be sent without being charged. This is because we want to avoid the handling of physical notes that could contribute to the spread ofCOVID19”, Mr Mupeta said.

Mr Mupeta disclosed that Zamtel has started sending communication to all customers informing them of the waiver in order to encourage them to adopt electronic means of carrying out their transactions.

“We are also soon starting to relay via our SMS channels, messages from the Ministry of Health on how to prevent the spread of coronavirus but also, symptoms to look out for,” Mr. Mupeta added.

“As a responsible corporate citizen, we believe the financial services industry has a key role in the prevention of this health emergency. We will continue to take whatever coordinated actions are necessary to support and adopt other precautionary approaches to enhanceboth national and global efforts in fighting the pandemic,” Mr. Mupeta stressed.