EcoCash Savings Club, a service meant to support savings groups that most of us know as ISALS, maround or mukando has been nominated for an award at the Mobile World Congress. Mobile World Congress (MCW) 2018 #MWC18 will be held from the 26th of February to the 1st of March.
About the GSMA
The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting nearly 800 operators with almost 300 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai, Mobile World Congress Americas and the Mobile 360 Series conferences.
For more information, you can visit the GSMA corporate website. You can as well follow the GSMA on Twitter.
MWC is ‘the largest gathering for the mobile industry where industry leaders gather, network, showcase, and exchange ideas.’
At each edition of the conference several awards are given to players in the mobile industry from around the world in recognition of innovative solutions. At this year’s edition one of own is in contention for an award.
There is a ‘Best Mobile Innovation for Women in Emerging Markets Award’ and the nominees are:
- Cassava Fintech (Econet Wireless Zimbabwe) & Mahindra Comviva for EcoCash Savings Club
- Girl Effect & iSON Group for Girls Connect
- Mobile Dimension LLC for Pregnancy Tracker
- MoPT&IT, Robi Axiata & Huawei for ICT Training Buses
- Türk Telekom for Türk Telekom Technological Mobilization
EcoCash Savings Club
This product was launched back in 2015 and is meant to support savings groups (maround or mukando) across Zimbabwe. Anyone registered on EcoCash to create a group wallet where fellow participants or members of the savings club contribute funds.
The product is in partnership with the Organisation For Public Health Interventions (OPHID) and although anyone is free to use it, the focus for Econet and OPHID is women. The Mbereko Women’s Groups in rural Marondera piloted the product and various other women’s groups have been engaged by Econet and OPHID.
As with a number of Econet’s innovations, they were not exactly the first to debut such a product in Africa. M-Pesa, the mobile money front-runners have their own Chama for example. EcoCash Savings Club was just executed so well that they are the ones getting nominated for awards.
You can read more about EcoCash Savings Club here.
Econet launches EcoCash Savings Club
