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ZIMBABWEANS in the Diaspora now have an opportunity to buy prepaid electricity for their families and loved ones back home through a new and innovative platform called Amagetsi.com

Amagetsi.com is an online platform, which can be accessed by anyone in South Africa, United Kingdom, US, Australia, Canada and many other countries.

The innovative system is expected to ease the burden on families supported by those in the Diaspora given the prevailing cash shortages that has seen many people spending long hours in queues at banking halls to withdraw cash.

The facility can be accessed from anywhere in the world as long as the user has a Visa or MasterCard and Instant EFT.

Zesa spokesperson Mr Fullard Gwasira could not confirm nor deny the new platform. He, however, acknowledged that several players have come on board to offer vendor services for pre-paid electricity vouchers.

“There are many people downstream who are contracted on vendor basis and the footprint is quite large. These ones are not directly connected to us but could be linked to a bank or so,” he said.

In an interview with 263chat.com, a Zimbabwean online media company, Mr Marcus Rance of Amagetsi.com said: “Our system allows users to purchase prepaid electricity in their respective local currencies while the beneficiary token is delivered in US dollar; it is available 24/7 and can be accessed anywhere using any medium with excellent support around the clock”.

Mr Rance added that Zimbabwe presented to them an opportunity for innovation and solving real life problems for the ordinary Zimbabweans at the same time allowing Diasporans to play a role in the economic development of the country.

“Zimbabwe has one of the largest numbers of the Diaspora community from Africa who regularly send money home at exorbitant costs.

“That remitted money is used to buy goods and services including electricity. However, due to the cash crunch there is no guarantee that cash will be available for collection.

“Amagetsi.com reduces the inconvenience associated with the unavailability of cash by allowing the remittance of a service at a fraction of the cost of remittance,” said Rance.

On network problems and system failure, Mr Rance said the system stability is fully controlled by Zesa.

“We are a vending channel and the system stability is fully controlled by Zesa, however we attempt to solve this problem by intelligently analysing the purchase history of our valued customers and offering advice based on the number of times and amounts they have purchased within a given period,” added Mr Rance. — Wires/Business Chronicle