• About 80% of Zimbabwean workers operate informally, with median monthly earnings of US$130
• Zimbabwe had more than 156,000 POS terminals by June 2026
• Regional platforms are extending merchant payments into lending, savings and other financial products

Harare — The World Bank has flagged Zimbabwe’s failure to convert strong economic growth into productive employment, with about 80% of working Zimbabweans now operating in the informal sector where median monthly earnings stand at US$130, despite real gross domestic product growth averaging nearly 6% between 2021 and 2025.

The finding, contained in the Zimbabwe Growth and Jobs Report released on 4 September 2026, traces the employment outcome to the direction in which labour has moved. Workers leaving agriculture have largely been absorbed by low-productivity retail and informal services, while manufacturing and higher-value services have taken a smaller share of employment.

The employment pattern has developed alongside a substantial payments and merchant network. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe data show that the country had 156,664 point-of-sale terminals and 57,384 mobile-money merchants by the end of June 2026, while active mobile-money subscribers reached 11.25 million.

The two datasets place Zimbabwe’s consumer economy in a more consequential commercial context. A large share of earning activity sits outside conventional formal employment, while an extensive network of merchants and payment points already reaches households operating within that structure.

Nearly half of Zimbabwe’s population also remains below the World Bank’s international extreme-poverty threshold. The measure uses a US$3-a-day benchmark expressed in 2021 purchasing-power-parity terms and cannot be directly compared with the nominal US$130 median monthly earnings figure, although both capture the limited purchasing capacity facing a large section of the domestic market.

For businesses, that income structure affects where and how consumption occurs. Informal earnings can be received daily, weekly or when trading activity permits, while household expenditure is spread across neighbourhood retailers, transport operators, small service providers and digital payment channels.

Manufacturers consequently deal with smaller purchases spread across more outlets, requiring tighter management of delivery frequency, stock availability, route density and collection costs. Banks need transaction and deposit relationships that can reach customers without placing a branch in every community, while insurers require collection mechanisms capable of handling frequent low-value premiums and accessible claims servicing.

Zimbabwe has already committed substantial infrastructure to solving part of that access problem.

Electronic transactions processed through the national payment system reached ZiG757.1 billion during the second quarter of 2026, up 23.7% from the first quarter, while transaction volumes increased 13.2% to 265.7 million. POS transaction volumes rose 13.8% during the quarter and mobile-money transactions increased 13.3% to 236.7 million, accounting for close to 89% of total electronic transaction volumes.

The installation of a terminal, registration of a merchant or opening of an agent point establishes physical reach. The return on that infrastructure comes from how regularly customers use it and how much additional business can be generated through the relationship.

For banks, a merchant that initially processes payments can subsequently generate deposits, transaction income and operating histories that support credit assessment. Insurers can use the same physical or digital relationship for premium collection and renewals, while manufacturers and distributors can deepen sales through higher order frequency and better stock availability.

Regional companies are increasingly putting capital behind this model.

Shoprite Holdings completed the acquisition of an initial 51% stake in R&A Cellular in August 2026, adding a point-of-sale network serving informal and semi-formal micro-retailers to the group’s broader distribution infrastructure. R&A’s devices provide airtime, electricity, payments and related services through merchants already operating inside communities.

The transaction became effective after Shoprite’s June financial year-end, leaving no reported revenue or margin contribution from the investment yet. Its commercial performance will therefore have to be tested against network expansion, transaction activity and the extent to which additional Shoprite financial services can be distributed through those merchant relationships.

A community retailer already carries customer traffic, a physical presence and a recurring transaction relationship. Additional services delivered through that outlet allow a larger company to deepen the revenue generated from an existing access point without replicating a supermarket, bank branch or standalone financial-services outlet in every community.

East Africa provides a longer operating record of that progression.

Vodacom Tanzania reported 14.1 million monthly M-Pesa customers in the year ended March 2026, while businesses accepting payments through Lipa kwa simu increased 29%. Lending, savings and merchant-payment products added 3.4 percentage points to M-Pesa revenue contribution during the year.

Its digital lending portfolio served more than five million customers and thousands of businesses, disbursing TZS3.4 trillion. Payment activity has consequently provided an existing customer relationship through which additional financial products can be distributed.

Safaricom has developed a similar architecture in Kenya. M-Pesa merchant services have expanded beyond payment acceptance into overdrafts, business lending and products aimed at micro-enterprises and informal traders. The merchant relationship consequently becomes useful beyond the original transaction as activity accumulated through the network supports additional products.

Zimbabwean corporate disclosures provide considerably less visibility into this stage of network economics.

Banks, telecom operators and payment platforms regularly disclose subscribers, branches, total transaction values or aggregate revenue. Manufacturers and distributors commonly disclose volumes and broad route-to-market commentary. Far fewer disclosures establish how productive individual access points have become.

For banks, the relevant measures include active merchants, transactions per merchant, deposits mobilised, revenue per access point, customer acquisition cost, credit utilisation and arrears. For manufacturers and distributors, order frequency, stock turnover, delivery cost, debtor days and repeat outlet activity provide a clearer measure of distribution economics.

Insurers face the same test through premium persistency, collection cost, policy renewals and claims turnaround.

Zimbabwe already had more than 156,000 POS terminals, over 57,000 mobile-money merchants and 11.25 million active mobile-money subscribers by June. Against an economy where four in every five workers operate informally, those numbers establish considerable physical and digital reach into the market.

The next 12 to 24 months provide a harder measure of what that infrastructure is producing. Transaction density, repeat usage, deposits gathered, additional products sold and revenue generated per merchant can establish whether companies are extracting greater economic output from existing networks before committing further capital to expansion.

For boards allocating capital to distribution, payments and customer acquisition, additional terminals, merchants and outlets require corresponding growth in activity sufficient to cover acquisition and servicing costs. Companies that can convert existing merchant relationships into recurring transactions, distribution, deposits, credit or insurance can extract more revenue from infrastructure already deployed while building customer relationships that become progressively costlier for competitors to replicate.

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