By Business Correspondent
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has completed the integration of mobile money providers with the national Civil Registry system, strengthening identity verification requirements as authorities move to close loopholes that facilitate fraud and illicit financial flows.
The integration enables mobile money operators to verify customer identities against Civil Registry records during onboarding and as part of ongoing Know Your Customer (KYC) reviews.
RBZ Governor Dr John Mushayavanhu said all mobile money operators had completed a customer verification exercise ordered by the central bank earlier this year and submitted proof of compliance by June 30.
“All operators have since met this requirement and provided the necessary documentation,” Dr Mushayavanhu told the media in Harare.
“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 with no adverse issues noted during the exercise.”
He added: “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 exercise followed a directive contained in the RBZ’s February 2026 Monetary Policy Statement, which required mobile money operators to verify their customer databases and ensure accounts were associated with valid national identification documents.
The latest measures build on a 2021 regulatory requirement for a “one line, one wallet” arrangement, under which each mobile line is restricted to a single mobile money wallet.
However, the RBZ had continued to identify weaknesses in subscriber databases, including duplicated identities, ghost lines and mismatches in subscriber information.
According to the central bank, such discrepancies create vulnerabilities that can be exploited for fraud, identity manipulation and other financial crimes, including illicit financial flows.
The Civil Registry integration is intended to strengthen the accuracy of customer information held by mobile network operators and mobile financial service providers by allowing subscriber details to be checked against official government records.
The RBZ said regulatory monitoring would continue after the completion of the verification exercise, with mobile money providers expected to maintain compliance with KYC requirements.
The development comes as Zimbabwe’s payments landscape continues to evolve, with consumers increasingly using mobile money, mobile banking applications, QR-code payments and other digital payment channels.
The central bank’s latest intervention is aimed at ensuring that the expansion of digital financial services is matched by stronger customer identification and controls against financial crime.
