IRIN report: Money transfer via phone

At the end of every month, Tariro Bhachi, 28, in Mutata Village in Mashonaland East Province, walks about 2km from her homestead to the top of a hill in search of cellular signal, joining a throng of others.

While most people do this to make phone calls, Bhachi's monthly trips have another purpose - to receive notification that a remittance has arrived from her husband, who has been working in South Africa for the last four years.

Her husband first sends the money - ranging from US$40 to $70 monthly - with bus drivers plying the Harare-Johannesburg route to his brother, who works as a hawker in Harare, the capital. His brother then transfers the money using Ecocash, a local mobile telephone platform for cash transfers. (...)