Zimbabwe Has Shut Down the Use of Mobile Money For Cash Transactions (qz.com) 22
Mobile money is fast blossoming in Africa, boosted by rising mobile adoption across the continent, but in Zimbabwe -- which is battling a severe financial crunch -- the most common cash-in and cash-out functionalities have just been killed off as the government battles to contain the country's economic crisis. From a report: Cash-out is process of converting mobile wallet balances into hard cash while cash-in refers to the process of depositing cash into a mobile wallet. Mobile money agents facilitate these processes and normally, the agents have to get the cash from banks against their mobile money balances which are referred to as "float." These agents then act as mini banks, basically facilitating deposit or withdrawal of cash (cash-in and cash out respectively) by account holders from mobile wallets.
These functionalities, in addition to sending and receiving money as well as payments at supermarkets and other merchants and cross transfers from and into bank accounts constitute the most impactful financial inclusion use cases that mobile money is hinged on across Africa. Success cases also include Kenya and Tanzania while MTN is ready to roll out mobile money in Nigeria. Yet in Zimbabwe, cash-in and cash-out has just been killed off by the government, because authorities have concluded the functions are being abused. Zimbabwean mobile money agents, mostly with the dominant EcoCash platform, have been capitalizing on cash shortages in Zimbabwe to buy cash for re-sale to mobile wallet holders at a premium of up to 50%. This means that when trying to access funds in your mobile wallet through the agents, one would only get about 50% of their balance.
These functionalities, in addition to sending and receiving money as well as payments at supermarkets and other merchants and cross transfers from and into bank accounts constitute the most impactful financial inclusion use cases that mobile money is hinged on across Africa. Success cases also include Kenya and Tanzania while MTN is ready to roll out mobile money in Nigeria. Yet in Zimbabwe, cash-in and cash-out has just been killed off by the government, because authorities have concluded the functions are being abused. Zimbabwean mobile money agents, mostly with the dominant EcoCash platform, have been capitalizing on cash shortages in Zimbabwe to buy cash for re-sale to mobile wallet holders at a premium of up to 50%. This means that when trying to access funds in your mobile wallet through the agents, one would only get about 50% of their balance.
288% inflation (Score:2, Funny)
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Your fiat money at work. [tradingeconomics.com]
Versus California in 1850:
... a breakfast of bread, cheese, butter, sardines and two bottles of beer with a friend and receiving a bill for $43 – the equivalent today of about $1,200.
There were reports of canteens charging a dollar for a slice of bread or two if it was buttered, the equivalent of $56. A dozen eggs might cost you $90 at today’s prices; a pick axe would be the equivalent of $1,500; a pound of coffee $1,200 and a pair of boots as much as $3,000 when today you could get a dece
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Well, aside from your random figures being uncited, and nowhere have I claimed that there aren't localized supply-and-demand effects on prices, my point is that fiat money is a very effective means of robbing a country blind--exactly as has happened in Zimbabwe.
If I do it, counterfeiting, it's a felony. If a government does it, it's "liquidity". Ultimately, that game can't work any more than physics will allow you to keep a stone from falling.
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When you stop to think about it, electronic wallets and electronic funds transfer, when trading in Zimbabwe why the fuck would you use that shitty currency. Electronic wallets and electronic transfer, you can trade any currency you get in the system, from the African point of view, I would go with what ever Renminbi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] you can get. You will likely be buying Chinese goods, there are Chinese traders and industry floating about. When you down to electronic wallets, why trade in s
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If I do it, counterfeiting, it's a felony. If a government does it, it's "liquidity".
And if you kill someone, it's murder, and if a government does it, it's death penalty. So?
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If I do it, counterfeiting, it's a felony. If a government does it, it's "liquidity". Ultimately, that game can't work any more than physics will allow you to keep a stone from falling.
You're free to make your own currency, no one will stop you. Good luck getting people to use it or governments to accept it. Unless your plan is to just spool up another crypto.
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I guess it's time for Plan B [twimg.com].
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Versus California in 1850: ... a breakfast of bread, cheese, butter, sardines and two bottles of beer with a friend and receiving a bill for $43 – the equivalent today of about $1,200.
There were reports of canteens charging a dollar for a slice of bread or two if it was buttered, the equivalent of $56. A dozen eggs might cost you $90 at today’s prices; a pick axe would be the equivalent of $1,500; a pound of coffee $1,200 and a pair of boots as much as $3,000 when today you could get a decent pair for around $120.
You're talking about the gold rush, right? When people were pulling, the equivalent, of millions of dollars worth of gold out of the ground every week? So, local businesses cranked up the price of goods accordingly. It's the same reason a room service hamburger at a nice hotel costs $20, when you could go across the street and get one at a bar for $8.
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Except they also have a liquidity problem, which you can't solve with a hard currency.
Economics is not abuse (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Economics is not abuse (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Economics is not abuse (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly this, my cousins bailed on Zimbabwe and managed to escape with most of their wealth intact in the late 1980s. One of my uncles died on flight flight 827. What is frustrating is political action was being undertaken around the world to reduce the power of white minority rule, and even the local whites new that some sort of land redistribution would inevitably be undertaken, it was just how this would be undertaken.
However you must remember these countries at the time were and still are massively underdeveloped compared to their population size so any change would take 50-100 years as you need to raise the populations education and infrastructure at the same time as beginning a slow re-distribution of resources. Most white farms were only partially productive as they where under resourced anyways so the unused portions could have easily been negotiated off them but would have taken a long time to cover the whole country. However instead they decided to murder and terrify the only educated part of the population and what little land was productive effectively stopped. Now the same murders terrify the educated black population so its a vicious circle as anyone with an education escapes to neighbouring countries that respect the rule of law.
I hope that one day they realise that wealth is knowledge and come to develop their societies appropriately. I think they will most likely be paying for their sins for another 50-100 years in the meantime.
Corruption ... (Score:2)
Get the fat slob corrupt politician in charge to empty all the stolen cash out of his fat ass and put it back in circulation. Then execute the fucker. Or execute the fucker first. Makes no difference and solves the problem, permanently.
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Yeah, I was expecting a punchline at the end.
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Don't worry it's all Tony Blair's fault.