Zimbabwe suspends mobile payments, stock exchange over ‘economic sabotage’

In an effort to stabilize its currency, authorities in Zimbabwe have indefinitely suspended all monetary transactions through mobile-phone platforms. According to reports, Zimbabwe has reported 786 per cent inflation, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has claimed that his administration will take all necessary steps to combat the current economic crisis and bring it to a swift end.

Transactions suspended pending investigations

As per reports, the World Bank has predicted that Zimbabwe’s economy will shrink up to 10 per cent this year. A statement released by the government on June 26 said that the suspension of transactions will allow the authorities to investigate several ‘malpractices’ and also to identify those responsible so that arrests can be made. The companies that will be affected by this suspension include Econet Wireless Ltd. unit Ecocash and state-controlled Telecel.

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According to reports, the government in Zimbabwe has come into possession of irrefutable evidence that phone-based mobile money systems were cooperating with the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in an effort to knowingly or unknowingly sabotage the country’s economy. The statement by the authorities stated that the suspension of transactions by mobile-phone platforms will remain in place until company’s in that sector can be reformed all false rates of exchange can be converted back into a genuine rate of exchange.

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Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Zimbabwe has reported 561 positive coronavirus cases according to the John Hopkins University coronavirus database. The country has a death toll of 6. The deadly coronavirus pandemic has infected 9,815,246 people worldwide and the global death toll stands at 494,596.

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