The Five Thousand Dollar PrePay Voucher

Zimbabwe's Econet says that it is launching a new PrePay top-up voucher with a denomination of ZW$5,000, which actually translates into a tiny US$0.20 thanks to Zimbabwe's insane exchange rates. The voucher, branded 'Buddie Booster' will offer 125 minutes airtime, plus an additional 12 minutes for free, which constitutes a 10% promotional discount.

Dakarayi Matanga, the company spokesman, said "Buddie has decided to reward its loyal customers, by introducing a promotional discount on the new recharge voucher," he said. "Buddie Booster is vividly branded for easy recognition, and subscribers must look out for outlets displaying the voucher's logo."

The voucher will be available via Electronic Recharging (EVD), through point of sale terminals in retail outlets dotted around the country. The current list of EVD outlets include Innscor's food courts, OK and Spar supermarkets and banks which offer Go Mula Mobile Banking.

The spokesman hinted that the benefits of the Buddie Booster card will filter to users of Econet's prepaid contract package, Libertie, through airtime sharing. Since the beginning of this year, customers on the two products have been able to share airtime through peer to peer airtime transfer.

On 1 August 2006 the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono introduced a new currency in an attempt to stop inflation. What was basically done was the removal of 3 zeros from every bank denomination. This has done very little to help stop inflation. The people of Zimbabwe were given 21 days (until 21 August 2006) to change their old money into new money.

Statistics from The Mobile World database notes that Econet is the market leader in Zimbabwe with an estimated 58% market share. The operator ended Q1 '06 with around 477,000 subscribers."

Posted to the site on 11th September 2006