Paynet escalates row with Zimbabwe banks

By Staff reporter | 20 Jun 2019 at 12:19hrs
Paynet
PAYNET Zimbabwe (Paynet), a salary payment software vendor, has offered companies a free service to wire salaries to their employees using EcoCash until August 1 2019, escalating a simmering row with banks.

This comes after the payment service provider, which is a subsidiary of AIM-listed investment firm Cambria, suspended services to Zimbabwean banks because they owe US$470 000 after they refused to pay for service charges in US dollars.

Local banks and other corporates use Paynet for RTGS transfers including interbank payments. The development affected the movement of monies and transactions in banks.

The National Social Security Authority (Nssa) last week issued a statement saying it would miss the public pension scheme pay-out dates after the software platform threatened to halt services due to failure in meeting the foreign currency demand.

Local banks have been failing to fulfil their obligations as the cash-strapped country is in the throes of a critical dollar shortages.

Consequently, Paynet disrupted its services leaving all local banks stranded, resorting to other alternatives.

"Paynet users will be able to use Paynet's tested, secure, and private platform to send salaries to EcoCash wallets in less than 15 minutes. Service will be free until August 1, 2019," said the software vendor.

Meanwhile, local banks have resorted to other alternatives that charge in RTGS dollars, amid accusations Paynet was flouting contractual agreements.

Banks argued the software vendor was contracted in local currency and was now attempting to change terms of the contract.

Paynet, however, said the agreement to pay an average 16 US cents for each transaction took place before there was a local currency.

LATEST NEWS

PARTNER CONTENT

WhatsApp Newsletter

Follow us

Latest Headlines