Analysis · Banking · Fintech · For Individual members
Bank accounts fall by 2.1 mil vs EcoCash losing 3.1 mil subscribers: How cash won the war
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's (RBZ) Quarterly Microfinance Report for Q2, 2022 revealed a decline in active bank accounts in Zimbabwe.
| March 2021 | June 2021 | September 2021 | December 2021 | March 2022 | June 2022 | |
| Total of Bank Accounts | 9.06 million | 7.17 million | 6.69 million | 8.17 million | 7.76 million | 6.95 million |
| Number of low-cost accounts | 5.82 million | 4.41 million | 4.45 million | 4.78 million | 4.83 million | 4.22 million |
The total number of active registered bank accounts fell by 2.11 million since March 2021. While low-cost accounts also saw a gradual fall over the quarters.
According to the RBZ, the decline was attributed to the "withdrawal and/or closure of branches in some service centres across the country by some banking institutions as part of the branch rationalisation process contain costs."
That's just a fancy way of saying, bank branches are expensive and a wide array of them is not sustainable in the current economic climate.
Tagged: EcoCash Holdings Zimbabwe, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)