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Douglas Mboweni

Brighton Gumbo Business Reporter
ECONET Wireless Zimbabwe has invested over $1,2 billion in the last six years, creating more than 2,000 direct jobs and supporting scores of downstream businesses in the economy, chief executive officer, Douglas Mboweni, said yesterday. The leading telecommunications company supports over 60,000 jobs through businesses that are involved in selling and supporting its products, he said. “Creating jobs is only possible when a company is able to invest and Econet has invested over $1.2 billion just in the last six years. This is the largest amount invested by any private company in the Zimbabwe economy to date,” said Mboweni.“Whether it’s vendors on the streets, EcoCash agents, kiosk operators, or more sophisticated suppliers of goods and services; we’re supporting over 60,000 jobs in the economy.”

He said Econet has invested more than $100 million in its key subsidiary, Liquid Telecom Zimbabwe to date, which is currently supporting more than 500 people through its operations in the country. “Those people you see digging and laying cables are employed. The money they earn supports families and sends children to school. We’ve invested more than $100 million in that company to date and that is why it is creating those jobs,” said Mboweni. He highlighted the impact of new ventures launched by Econet.

Mboweni said in less than a year, EcoSure was now the largest insurance business in the country in terms of number of insured people and has created thousands of jobs.“EcoSure has to date covered over 1 million unique individuals, which is more than all the insurance companies put together. This new business has created more than 1,000 jobs indirectly,” he said.“From a revenue point of view, it’s still small but we expect it to grow as big as EcoCash, which is now generating almost $100 million per year.”

Mboweni said one of the major ventures launched by Econet less than a year ago, “Econet ConnectedCar,” has created more than 250 new jobs for young people who do the installation work. “It’s already the largest vehicle tracking business in the country and is expected to create another 250 jobs before the end of the year,” he said. Mboweni said the recently launched EcoFarmer, which helps small holder farmers with cell phone based extension services, has also grown dramatically as it now has over 650,000 customers. “The service has created over 200 jobs in the economy, and is helping smallholder farmers be more effective and therefore profitable,” he said.

The Econet boss said Steward Bank has also created new jobs in its new distribution model of agency banking, although the financial institution had shed 40 direct jobs.“We’ve changed the banking model to align it with what we do with EcoCash. The bank now provides services through 250 distribution agents,” he said.“Each of these agents must have at least two people who’re specially trained to provide our services. So we’re actually sustaining over 500 jobs through our agents.”

Mboweni said Econet has also paid out $1,136 billion in taxes to the government for the last six years and by comparison it has only paid out $109 million to its 9,175 shareholders, including its founders, over the same period.Econet offers a wide array of services, which facilitate convenience to the people of Zimbabwe by enabling them to complete simple financial transactions from a mobile phone. These include Ecocash, Ecofarmer, Econet solar, Ecoschool, Ecohealth, Econet ConnectedCar, Ecosure among others.