the country’s productive and export sectors all but collapsed, there just wasn’t enough of the foreign currencies in circulation. “If you wanted to buy a packet of sweets for your child, you couldn’t get change,” said Masiyiwa. Econet intervened with a mobile payments system which has set Zimbabwe on course to become Africa’s first cashless economy. “Today 43 percent of the GDP moves through Econet Wireless,” said the telecoms mogul. Explained Econet’s chief executive, Douglas Mboweni , recently said: “We do not expect anyone to still be using paper money in a year’s time. It will be just like Europe or America, where you no longer see people carrying bundles of cash.” Masiyiwa told the Guardian that his next challenge is to create a product that allows people who are informally employed, such as smallholder farmers and casual workers, to access credit. “In Africa 70 percent of people are informally employed,” he says. “The big frontier for us is to create platforms where those people can access credit.” There is little risk that they will get into unmanageable debt because the banks won’t extend excessive credit, calling the system “self-regulating”. “We're trying to build up a savings culture where people are encouraged to save, even if they only have a dollar — for children’s school fees, for transport, for the doctor. A savings and credit infrastructure builds resilience.” However, in order to reach the unbanked, financial institutions — and telecommunications companies — must design services that are practical, simple and affordable. “I’ve got a customer who has a dollar in his pocket and has got to decide to have some lunch, call his cousin or go to the doctor,” he said. “We have to develop services with sensitivity to the fact that in Africa our customers don’t have the same disposable income as in New Zealand, for example.” It would however, be a mistake to assume the poorest behave differently to other customers. “Their behaviour and aspirations are no diff