Econet Wireless and the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) have entered into a partnership which will enable EcoCash users to pay tollgate fees using the platform.

The new system will be available at 20 tollgates across Zimbabwe before being rolled out country wide.

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe chief executive officer Douglas Mboweni said the service would help travelling motorists to experience the convenience of using EcoCash while providing Zinara with a safe, secure and convenient revenue collection method.

“The state of the art value proposition is not the ordinary Pay Merchant, but a specific solution unique to Zinara, which allows users to link a mobile phone wallet with a registered vehicle for auto-detection and instant access at the tollgate,” she said.

“The auto detection of the pre-loaded toll wallet at toll gate offers complete disruption to the manual payment method of cash and cards, saving motorists queuing time with a payment experience of under 10 seconds granting express toll access to motorists.”

Currently tollgate fees are pegged at $2 for light vehicles and $3 for minibuses whilst buses, heavy vehicles and haulage trucks pay $4, $5 and $10 respectively.