Zimbabwe’s mobile-money system has entered a tougher era of identity checks after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe completed the integration of the national Civil Registry database with subscriber records held by mobile network operators and digital-wallet providers.
The new arrangement allows mobile-money users to be checked against official national records during registration and in later customer reviews. It brings biometric and national identification verification into a system used daily by consumers, merchants and businesses, while closing gaps created by duplicated identities, ghost lines and incorrect subscriber details.
For users of EcoCash and other mobile-money services, the change means that a wallet will no longer stand apart from the identity attached to the mobile line behind it. Operators can now cross-check the information supplied by customers against records maintained by the Civil Registry Department. The same process will apply when new accounts are opened and when existing customers undergo Know Your Customer, or KYC, reviews.
RBZ Governor Dr John Mushayavanhu ordered the clean-up in his 2026 Monetary Policy Statement, delivered in February. Mobile-money operators were instructed to remove accounts that could not be matched to valid national identification documents by the end of June.
The deadline has now passed, and the central bank says the operators have met the requirement. Dr Mushayavanhu said the exercise covered the rescreening of all mobile-money wallets and included a follow-up verification process carried out with the Civil Registry.
“Following the 2026 February Monetary Policy Statement, the Reserve Bank directed all mobile money operators to complete a customer verification exercise and submit proof of compliance by 30 June 2026,” he said.
“All operators have since met this requirement and provided the necessary documentation. Pursuant to that, all mobile money wallets were rescreened in collaboration with the Civil Registry, and the Reserve Bank’s follow-up verification process was successfully concluded by 30 June 2026 with no adverse issues noted during the exercise. Furthermore, all mobile money providers have now been integrated with the Civil Registry system to enable customer identity verification during on-boarding and ongoing Know Your Customer (KYC) reviews.”
The central bank will continue monitoring compliance, with the identity link expected to remain part of routine supervision rather than a once-off exercise. Accounts and subscriber information will therefore face continuing checks as operators register new customers and review existing wallets.
The latest action builds on a 2021 directive requiring a strict “one line, one wallet” arrangement. Under that rule, each SIM card is limited to a single mobile-money account. The measure was intended to make it harder for people to operate several wallets through one line, but inconsistencies in subscriber databases left room for mismatched details and identities.
The RBZ has warned that such discrepancies can create openings for fraud, identity manipulation and other financial crimes, including illicit financial flows. A wallet registered under unreliable or duplicated information can make it more difficult to trace the movement of money and can give criminals another route to target customers or conceal the proceeds of crime.
The urgency of the clean-up was demonstrated in February when 11 people, aged between 20 and 26, were arrested in connection with a phishing operation that targeted EcoCash users. The case involved 31 complainants and an alleged loss of approximately US$61,387.
Investigators said the group used bogus free-data offers to lure victims. Beginning in November 2025, fraudulent links were sent to mobile users who were directed to imitation websites designed to collect personal information, including telephone numbers. The victims were then contacted by phone and asked to provide the one-time PINs sent to their handsets.
The PINs allegedly gave the suspects access to EcoCash wallets, allowing funds to be transferred into accounts under their control. Two of the suspects were arrested at their homes on 4 February after detectives used intelligence-led policing and financial tracing. Five mobile phones, Econet SIM cards and US$600 in cash were recovered during searches, while further arrests followed in Chitungwiza. More phones, SIM cards and Econet lines were seized in the operation.
The incident showed how personal information, a mobile line and a one-time PIN can be combined to attack a digital wallet. The Civil Registry integration is aimed primarily at verifying who owns an account and whether the subscriber information is genuine. It forms one part of a wider effort to strengthen the security of Zimbabwe’s expanding electronic-payment network.
That network is no longer limited to traditional bank cards and cash withdrawals. Mobile banking applications, mobile-money platforms, QR-code payments, online payment gateways and other instant-payment services are being used alongside conventional point-of-sale facilities.
Dr Mushayavanhu said the rise of these alternatives had not made POS devices irrelevant. Instead, the different systems were developing alongside one another, giving merchants and customers more ways to pay and receive money.
“In recent years, the payments landscape has continued to evolve, with growing adoption of alternative faster payments that leverage digital payment channels, including mobile banking applications, mobile money platforms, QR code-based payments, online payment gateways, and other instant and faster payment solutions,” he said.
“These innovations provide merchants and consumers with additional secure, convenient, and cost-effective payment options, thereby complementing traditional POS-based payment acceptance channels. Despite the growing use of alternative payment methods, POS devices remain an important component of the national payments ecosystem, particularly for merchant acceptance of card-based transactions. In this regard, the number of POS devices in the market increased from 155 518 in February to 156 664 as at June 30, 2026.”
The increase represents 1,146 additional POS devices between February and the end of June, even as mobile wallets and other digital channels continue to expand. It points to a payments environment in which consumers and merchants are using several systems rather than abandoning one platform for another.
For the RBZ, the priority is to ensure that the growth of digital payments is matched by stronger controls. Linking mobile-money records to the Civil Registry gives operators a direct way to test subscriber information at the point of onboarding and during later KYC checks. It also gives regulators a clearer view of the identities connected to the wallets moving money through the system.
The new verification system will not remove every threat faced by mobile-money users. Scammers can still try to persuade customers to disclose passwords or one-time PINs. But the central bank’s action removes a major weakness by making it harder to maintain wallets connected to false, duplicated or mismatched identities.
As Zimbabwe’s digital-payment ecosystem grows, the message from the regulator is clear: access to mobile money must be tied to a verifiable national identity, and operators will be expected to keep their records accurate. For fraudsters relying on ghost lines, borrowed identities and poorly matched subscriber data, the space to operate is becoming narrower.