News Update as @ 1530 hours, Wednesday 30 July 2014Feedback: bh24admin@zimpapers.co.zwEmail: bh24feedback@zimpapers.co.zw

By Rumbidzayi Zinyuke

Econet Wireless’ mobile money service, Ecocash has launched a debit card that is linked to the Ecocash wallet, a move which will enable subscribers to make international payments with ease.

The debit card, a result of an agree-ment with MasterCard, is set to reduce the dependence on cash and increase financial inclusion through electronic pay-ments in Zimbabwe and beyond the bor-

ders. The move comes hardly a month after rival operator, Telecel, launched its own debit card that is linked to Zimswitch for its Telecash subscribers. Speaking at the launch of the Ecocash Debit card, Econet chief executive Douglas Mboweni said the debit card would do away with the need to carry around physical cash.

“The adoption of electronic payments is critical to Zimbabwe’s economic devel-opment. Reducing dependency on cash while increasing financial inclusion bene-

fits the whole country including the gov-ernment, industry sectors like tourism and retail, merchants and citizens,” he said. He said the debit card would also increase the velocity of transactions. “We are saying let geography not limit the convenience that our subscribers should have. We want to do away with problems of geography and access to physical cash. We are saying let the money be kept in a bank and let the money be moved from one account to another while we use this convenient piece of plastic to do transactions,” he said. Ecocash chief executive Cuthbert Tembedza also said the debit card pro-vides an additional choice of transacting for people who did not want to use cash or mobile money. “We look forward to offering Zimbabweans even more ways to benefit from the security and con-venience of electronic payments as they engage with, and contribute to, the for-

mal economy,” he said. He said the debit card will create interoperability between everyone in different parts of the world.

MasterCard representative Charlton Goredema said the debit card would address Zimbabwe’s market realities, particularly the impact of mobile money.

“As EcoCash enables its customers to benefit from MasterCard’s global pay-ments network, we are assisting Zimba-bwe to integrate its economy with those elsewhere in the world. Importantly, we are also contributing to the financial free-dom of individuals,” says Goredema. The card will cost users about $2 to access and transaction fees range between 30 cents and $2.45. Users of the card can also withdraw money from MasterCard licensed ATMs and the card uses an EMV Chip and PIN technology, which is much more secure than magnetic stripe cards that most of the local banks still use. •

Ecocash subscribers get access to Mastercard payment platform

BH24

BH24 Reporter

The Cimas Medical Laboratories Harare laboratory has become the first medical laboratory in Zimbabwe to attain ISO 15189 Accreditation, the international standard for medical laboratories.

The standard is based on ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO 9001 but takes into consideration the specific Medical Lab-oratories requirements for quality and competence and the importance of the medical laboratories to patients’ care. Cimas Medical Laboratories received ISO accreditation from the South-ern African Development Community Accreditation Services (SADCAS), an accreditation body whose mission is to provide internationally recognised accreditation services for SADC mem-ber states

Cimas Medical Laboratories Harare laboratory manager Roselin Maga-ramombe said the accreditation confirmed that the Cimas Medical Laboratories operated according to international standards and that results of tests done at the Cimas Medical Laboratories would be accepted inter-nationally.

“We are very excited about the accred-

itation. We are happy to attain this accreditation first time around on appli-cation and we have attained it despite numerous challenges facing the health delivery industry in general and the medical laboratory services in particu-lar.

“This accreditation means we are inter-nationally recognised. If, for example, a patient has a test done at our labora-tory, he or she can take the test results anywhere regionally and internation-ally and the results will be accept-ed,”she said.

The ISO 15189accreditation pro-cess for Cimas Medical Laboratories began in 2011 and involved training, strengthening of laboratory manage-ment, comparing observed practice with the standard and implementing

changes to conform to the standard.

SADCAS chief executive Maureen Mutasa said Cimas been granted the

accreditation following a meeting of the joint SADCAS/South African National Accreditation Services (SANAS) accreditation approvals committee. •

3 NEWS

Cimas Medical Laboratories attains ISO 15189 Accreditation

BH24

By Funny Hudzerema

Government has embarked on stake-holder consultations to speed the draft-ing of the National Quality Standards Authority Bill and give room for the Zimbabwe Quality Standards Regula-tory Authority.

Addressing delegates at the Standards Association of Zimbabwe workshop on the role of standards in national tech-nical regulatory framework, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Chiratidzo Mabuwa said the consulta-tions had already begun.

“It is envisaged that the passing of the National Quality Standards Authority Bill will culminate into the formation of the Zimbabwe Quality Standards Reg-ulatory Authority.

“ZQSRA is expected to hold the responsibility of ensuring that local and imported products that are sold in Zimbabwe do meet the quality, safety,

health and environmental standards,” she said.

She also said the standardisation of local goods and services will protect public health and safety and can eco-nomically establish efficient markets locally and internationally.

“Standards and conformity assess-ment can also assist in the develop-ment of better regulatory practice and national quality infrastructures facilitate markets and allow societies to have confidence in technical,” he said.

Deputy Minister Mabuwa added that the establishment of the Standards Regulatory Authority will align Zimba-bwe to its World Trade Organization obligations (WTO).

“The setting up of the monitoring

mechanism will not only ensure com-pliance with quality, health, safety and environmental standards, but the Authority will set Zimbabwe in line with the WTO agreements to which we are a signatory,” she said.

Speaking at the same event, Interna-tional Standards Organization expert Graeme Drake said Zimbabwe must work in line with the African Organi-zation for Standards with guidelines to standards for the nation to benefit at continental level and this will develop to international.

“Standardization of local goods and services protect public health and safety and can economically establish efficient markets locally and interna-tionally.

“Standards and conformity assess-ment can also assist in the develop-ment of better regulatory practice and national quality infrastructures facilitate markets and allow societies to have confidence in technical,” he said.

The objective of the workshop was to raise awareness among national reg-ulatory authorities in Zimbabwe on approaches and benefits of using vol-untary standards in regulations. •

5 NEWS

Government engages stakeholders on National Standards Regulatory Authority

Deputy Minister Mabuwa

AdM-DI156506-

BH24

7 NEWS

By Lynn Murahwa

French-based energy company, Sch-neider Electric has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with a local energy company, Samansco for the supply of solar powered LED lamps that is expected to generate $10 mil-lion.

Speaking at the signing ceremony which took place at the Residence of the French Ambassador Laurent Dela-housse yesterday, Samansco manag-ing director Jangez Gangat said the targeted revenue from the deal would be realised over the next three years.

"We currently have over 170 dealers over the country and we are looking to expand that. Through Schneider Elec-tric we have begun to train entrepre-neurs from rural areas in partnership

with NGOs to become energy entrepre-neurs."The investment from Schneider is a commitment from them through-out Africa to train over 10 000 people on the Access to Energy programme. In Zimbabwe we are targeting over 2 500 people to train over the next three years," said Gangat.

He said Samansco had supplied 22 000 systems in 14 countries in the region to date. The portable bulb, also known as The Mobiya TS120S, is an energy efficient, eco-friendly and robust port-able lamp producing 120-lumen light output, [perfectly suited for demanding rural environments.

The lamp is equipped with a mobile phone charger that includes a USB port. Schneider Electric head of sus-tainable development for southern Africa Zanelle Dalglish said the com-

pany is pleased to partner with Zim-babwe and the development within the country. It has been set at a retail price of $99 by Samansco.

"In terms of revenue, we had about 20 billion Euros revenue in 2013 so Schneider Electric is a well-established international organisation.

It makes me very proud to be in Zim-babwe to say that an organisation of this size has a keen interest in Zimba-bwe and looking at the development within your country," she said.

She said 55 percent of the Zimbabwean population is not connected to the grid and 11,5 percent is underserviced in remote areas making the Mobiya an ideal solution for development.

Also speaking at the Launch the Minis-ter of Environment, Water and Climate Saviour Kasukuwere said the sup-port brought in by Schneider Electric through Samansco will go a long way in providing electricity to the country.

"As a ministry we are excited that this falls within our space, that is the intro-duction of solar gadgets and power.

It is also supporting our schools, adding electricity to our schools so it is a very welcome investment and we look for-ward to working very closely with Sch-neider Electric and their local agents," he said. •

Schneider Electric in $10 million deal with local firm

BH24

The equities markets maintained its bull run for the second day after gain-ing 1,18 percent as no counters in the industrials registered any loses.

The industrial index gained 2.17 points to close trade at 186.54 points. Hippo was up 4.90 cents to 60 cents,

Old Mutual rose 3.01 cents to close at 263.01 cents and Colcom added 3 cents to 25 cents. TSL picked up 2 cents to 27 cents and beverages giant Delta traded 1.1 cents firmer at 126.1 cents.

The mining index however shed 1.8

points to close trade at 95.65 points, as Bindura eased 0.27 cents to settle at 8.73 cents. Falgold was unchanged at the previous trading level, while Hwange and Riozim were bid higher at 5 cents and 22 cents respectively. ― BH24 Reporter •

9 ZSE REVIEW

ZSE in second day gains

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We feel we should applaud the effort being made by Telecomms companies in making sure that all Zimbabweans have access to banking services.

Despite the fact that the major-ity of people in the country are still unbanked, mobile network service providers have changed the sphere of late.

Not only have they increased acces-sibility to banking services, they have made the same services easier and cheaper.

The fact that Zimbabweans have been slowly adopting the culture of using plastic money to make payments shows how these services come in handy.

What the traditional banks failed to do in a century, the mobile network oper-ators have done in under a decade. Not to take anything from the banks, but we feel mobile companies have changed the banking services arena.

The launch of mobile money ser-vices by Econet, Telecel and NetOne

increased the number of people with access to banking services signifi-cantly. Banking was made reachable.

People no longer had to carry physi-cal money but could just pay using the various platforms and trips to the banks got fewer and fewer.

And now Telecel and Econet have introduced debit cards which are con-nected to a subscriber’s wallet.

Looking at the Telecash Gold Card, its greatest strength is undenia-

bly the convenience it will create for retail payments made through mobile money. The Gold Card is bringing the simplicity of swiped payments to mobile money.

And Ecocash now has the Mastercard debit card. The huge convenience is that the EcoCash wallet is also a Mas-terCard wallet. This means you can use it to pay for anything from pay-ing for stuff in a shop or doing your shopping across the borders to buying things on the internet.

Informal traders who used to carry around large sums of money can now just use the debit card.

Between having a telecash debit card and Ecocash mastercard, Zimbabwe-ans will almost always never need to use cash, unless retailers and informal traders shun these convenient meth-ods of payments. We do not know how people will receive these cards, but the reception that mobile money services enjoyed might be something to go by. In short, Zimbabwe is surely moving towards being a cashless economy! •

11 BH24 COMMENT

Zim moving towards cashless economy

BH24

Following the successful buyout of three Shoprite Tanzania stores two months ago, Kenya’s largest super-market chain, Nakumatt Holdings has officially opened one of the stores at Mlimani City Mall in capital city, Dar es Salam.

The Sh4 billion ($46 million) acquisition of the three stores from South Africa retail giant gave Nakumatt leverage to re-establish its presence in the Tan-zanian retail market after it opened its first outlet in 2011. The three stores acquired by Nakumatt are located in

Mlimani City mall, Puga Road in Dar es Salam and in Arusha. Nakumatt Hold-ings Managing Director, Atul Shah said the launching of its store in Tanzania fulfils the company’s “long held dream” of establishing its presence in Tanzania.

“This opening also sets the stage for our 50th branch opening by mid-Au-gust which will be a key milestone as we’ll have achieved our Nakumatt 2.0 Strategy goal a clear six months ahead of the February 2015 target,” Shah said. The Nakumatt Pungu Road in Dar es Salaam will be home to its Tanzania

Headquarters, Nakumatt said. Shop-rite closed its Tanzania business after a 12-year spell in the country. It was forced out when the host government accused it of flooding its market with South African products.

Nakumatt made an offer to acquire Shoprite’s local assets but such move was slowed when Shoprite employees moved to court over fears of losing their terminal benefits once the Kenyan retailer took over.

The Fair Competition Commission (FCC) of Tanzania later cleared the

Nakumatt-Shoprite deal in May after Shoprite employees withdrew their case from the High Court.

However, it gave the retailer strict conditions on operating in its market including hiring a certain quota of locals as well as patronizing domestic manu-facturers.

The Regional Retailer already has 34 stores in Kenya and hopes to add three more before the end of the year. Aside the stores in Tanzania, Nakumatt also 10 other subsidiaries are in Uganda and Rwanda.― VENTURES AFRICA •

Ten months after opening its first local factory in Egypt, Samsung Electronics says it will invest $20 million over the next four years to develop a new tele-vision factory in Dube TradePort, South Africa.Located in the KwaZulu-Natal province, Dube TradePort is one of the special economic zones the South Afri-can government is setting up to boost investment. The business hub is sched-uled to launch before the end of the

year. Samsung intends to begin con-struction of the factory in line with the hub launch to cash in on the increasing demands for consumer goods in the country.

According to research, an average South African spends about $940 per year on electronics. Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) also revealed that consumer spending in the country

reached an all time high of R1.3tril-lion ($127 billion) in the first quarter of 2014.

Deputy Managing Director of Sam-sung Electronics South Africa, Matthew Thackrah says the new plant is in line with the company’s goal to create new business opportunities, products and technology. The company said the manufacturing facility will encour-

age the development of skilled and unskilled labour in the region.

Samsung, like other technology prod-uct manufacturers is seeking new grounds in developing markets like Africa, with the continent moving from being a “dumping ground” to a high consumer rate market given its boom-ing population and spending power. ― VENTURES AFRICA •

13 REGIONAL NEWS

Samsung to build $20m TV factory in South Africa

Nakumatt regional expansion boosted with Tanzania store opening

BH24

15 DIARY OF EVENTS

The black arrow indicate level of load shedding across the country.

POWER GENERATION STATSGen Station

30 July 2014

Energy

(Megawatts)

Hwange 531 MW

Kariba 750 MW

Harare 20 MW

Munyati 26 MW

Bulawayo 28 MW

Imports 0 MW

Total 1355 MW

1 August - Sixteenth Annual General Meeting of the members of Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Limited, Place: Econet Park, 2 Old Mutare Road, Msasa, Harare, Time; 10.00am

Seed Co Limited 19th Annual General Meet-ing Venue: Seed Co Administration Block at Sta-pleford Date: Wednesday 20 August Time: 12:00 hours

National Tyre Services Limited 52nd Annual General Meeting Venue : Boardroom, Stand 4608, Corner Cripps/Seke Roads, Granite-side, Harare Date: 20 August 2014 Time: 14:30 hours

THE BH24 DIARY

BH24

17 ZSE

ZSEMOVERS CHANGE TODAY PRICE USC SHAKERS CHANGE TODAY PRICE USC

STARAFRICACORPORATION 8.00 27.00 BNC -3.00 8.73

SEED CO 0.50 2.01

PEARL 1.28 79.00

PADENGA 4.98 2.95

OLD MUTUAL 2.56 8.00

OK 1.16 263.01

NICOZDIAMOND 3.09 17.01

MASIMBA 8.33 1.30

HIPPO VALLEy 11.90 2.35

FIRST MUTUAL 8.89 60.00

IndicesINDEx PREVIOUS TODAY MOVE CHANGE

INDUSTRIAL 184.95 183.76 -1.19 POINTS -0.64%

MINING 61.13 66.53 +5.40 POINTS +8.83%

Stocks Exchange

BH24

19 AFRICA STOCkS

Botswana 8,664.65 -11.96 -0.14% 12July

Cote dIvoire 246.37 +2.18 +0.89% 07Mar

Egypt 7,949.60 -75.68 -0.94% 06Mar

Ghana 2,295.37 -14.73 -0.64% 24July

Kenya 4,896.77 -13.83 -0.28% 21July

Malawi 12,662.47 +0.00 +0.00% 07Mar

Mauritius 2,074.51 -3.51 -0.17% 07Mar

Morocco 9,544.10 +21.01 +0.22% 07Mar

Nigeria 42,285.85 -258.48 -0.61% 25July

Rwanda 131.27 +0.00 +0.00% 24Oct

Tanzania 2,018.97 +25.40 +1.27% 07Mar

Tunisia 4,624.39 -39.32 -0.84% 07Mar

Uganda 1,503.90 +0.81 +0.05% 10Sep

Zambia 4,242.74 +14.95 +0.35% 10April

Zimbabwe 184.37 +0.77 +0.42% 29July

African stock round up Commodity Prices

Name Price

Crude Oil 1,300.91 -0.21%

Spot Gold USD/oz 1,292.63 -0.26%

Spot Silver USD/oz 19.38 -0.46%

Spot Platinum USD/oz 1,421.25 -0.33%

Spot Palladium USD/oz 798.50 -0.64%

LME Copper USD/t 6,770 -0.18%

LME Aluminium USD/t 1,780 -1.17%

LME Nickel USD/t 18,230 -1.73%

LME Lead USD/t 2,095 -1.41%

Quote of the day — "Never turN dowN a job because you thiNk it's too small, you doN't kNow where itcaN lead." ― julia morgaN

Globalshareholder.com

BH24

European stocks retreated as inves-tors weighed corporate earnings, and as the U.S. joined Europe in imposing new sanctions on Russia for its role in the insurgency in Ukraine. U.S. stock futures were little changed, while Asian shares rose.

Schneider Electric SE declined 2.7 per-cent after first-half adjusted earnings missed analysts’ estimates. Airbus Group NV climbed 3.6 percent after

posting a 10 percent increase in first-half earnings.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 0.3 percent to 341.36 at 8:41 a.m. in London.

The equity benchmark rose 0.3 per-cent yesterday as companies from Ferrovial SA to Next Plc reported bet-ter-than-projected results. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures gained 0.2 percent today, while the MSCI Asia

Pacific Index advanced 0.3 percent.

The Stoxx 600 yesterday pared gains in the final half hour of trading as the European Union agreed to new sanc-tions on Russia that curb its access to bank financing, arms, and equipment to modernize its oil industry.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced late yesterday penalties for American citizens dealing with equity or bonds of VTB Bank OAO, Bank of

Moscow and Russian Agricultural Bank. United Shipbuilding Corp., which has contracts with the Russian military, was also sanctioned.

The Federal Reserve will reduce its monthly purchases for the sixth time to $25 billion from $35 billion as it ends a two-day meeting after European mar-kets close today, according to econo-mists. ― Bloomberg •

21 INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Europe stocks fall as investors weigh earnings, sanctions

A few days ago the Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services, Webster Shamu, announced the new directors for local postal agency Zimpost and the two state owned telecoms outfits Netone and TelOne.

The appointments are effective from 1 August 2014. The NetOne board chairman is Mr Alex Marufu and the vice chairman is Mr Sydney Nyanungo. The new Zimpost chairman is Mr Clem-ence Mabaso and the vice chairman is Retired Air Marshal Henry Muchena.

TelOne’s new board chairman is Mr Charles Shamu and Retired Briga-dier-General Charles Wekwete is the deputy chair.

Judging from figures released by POTRAZ, the industry regulator, this new leadership has a lot to take care of to ensure a competitive standing in communications.

Each of these organisations is fighting for relevance in aggressive markets and it will take a lot of level headed decision making to ensure that they come out on top.

NetOne, one of the country’s three mobile network operators seems to have its head above water despite being the last in a class of three.

Its new board is faced with charging forward in a telecoms industry seized by challenges of declining voice reve-nue(the cash cow and family favour-ite), a wheezing economy and market

share battles for anything from OTT services to brand recognition.

TelOne, in the perpetual sweet spot of being the only fixed line and ADSL service provider has managed to expe-rience, for the first time, a growth in its fixed line subscriber base. However this victory is challenged by the strong positioning of mobile services that have

challenged the relevance of a fixed line service which has experienced a resur-gence thanks to the benefit of ADSL services. The decisions being made at board level will most likely need to include a strategy to capitalise on the huge demand for stable, affordable internet services.

Postal services champion Zimpost, is also fighting technological aftershock and its board has to craft a progres-sive plan for a brand synonymous with a service that most would say is not a priority in the digital age.

With the decline of postal traffic, the role of ZIMPOST as a courier services leader will likely be part of a the new vision and strategy that the new board has to roll out.

Its implementation is however not so simple especially in a market that has several options. (Just ask the guys from Zimboshopper)

In any case we will all be watching to see how well these new directors handle the challenges that lay before them once they assume their duties. ― Techzim •

22 ANALYSIS

Lots of homework for new directors at NetOne, TelOne

Minister Shamu