As prices of many goods and services continue to skyrocket beyond the reach of many, Econet has come up with a new Ecocash Bundle. Ecocash transaction charges rose recently and this was followed by data bundles which more than doubled across all networks. As a result, many people have been left feeling hard done by these increases prompting Ecocash to try and offer some relief

Now you can dial *151*4# or log onto the Ecocash App to purchase the Ecocash Bundle. With this bundle, you can enjoy free Ecosure cover, free bank to wallet (or vice versa) transactions as well as other freebies. The bundles are denominated in RTGS $15, RTGS $25 and RTGS $40. Depending on which bundle you choose to buy, you will not be charged for certain transactions. For example, with a RTGS$15 bundle, you get a maximum of two free send money transactions of ZWL$7000 each and free Ecosure cover for RTGS$750 among other things. The ZWL$15000 bundle allows you free Ecosure cover, four free RTGS$1 000 send money transactions, four free RTGS$1 200 merchant payments, one free cash out of ZWL$150000 as well as free accident cover of RTGS$10 000 among other things. Whether this covers the 2% tax is not yet clear. If it does, this will be a welcome move.

Will this work?

A number of people have raised concern that they are failing to purchase the bundle, receiving a message saying “this service is not applicable for current user” whenever they try to purchase the bundle. This is something that Econet would definitely want to work on. Most new offerings experience glitches here and there in any case. The sooner this is sorted out the better.

Econet is banking on the huge subscriber base that they have on the Ecocash platform to drive the success of this new bundle. Ecocash enjoys more than 90% market share in the mobile money space and this is going to be helpful in determining the success of the Ecocash Bundle. However, for someone to fork out RTGS$15 for the cheapest bundle may be too much to ask. Many are already struggling to fork out RTGS$5 to buy 1 gig of data, up from RTGS$2.

It is still too early to tell whether the Ecocash bundle will be a success in its current state or it will need to be tweaked. Whatever happens, Ecocash should be commended for attempting to work on new offerings once in a while. It shows a business that keeps evaluating itself and re-invigorating its products.