Cassava trades lower on court drama

Ndaka Majaka

ECOCASH parent company, Cassava Smartech (Cassava), yesterday traded lower on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) following a High Court challenge lodged by the firm after a central bank ban on cash-in and cash-out transactions effected on Monday.

Cassava, a subsidiary of Strive Masiyiwa’s Econet Wireless, traded $0,0458 lower at $1,6573 on Wednesday after the counter threatened a complete shutdown of its EcoCash platform if the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) insisted on the ban.

The central bank eventually reversed the ban on mobile money cash-outs barely 48 hours after it banned cash-in and cash-out transactions arguing that EcoCash agents were fuelling the  black market in foreign currency trading and taking advantage of Zimbabweans by selling cash at high markups.

The climb down was too late for the Cassava share as the ZSE had already closed.

Despite this, Cassava contributed 18,13 percent to the ZWL$10,22 million total trades recorded for the day.