ZESA subsidiary and ICT Wing, Powertel Communications added another convenience to the end user of prepaid electricity by introducing prepaid electricity scratch cards. The scratch cards will soon be availed at every convenience point- street corners, retail outlets, shops, general dealers, kiosks, hairdressing saloons under a powerpacked campaign dubbed Magetsi kwese kwese.
Powertel Communications is quickly rising to the task of its national duty which is to ensure that there is creation of an intertwined network to ensure optimal distribution and access to electricity top-up service across the country.
In March 2013, the government through the Ministry of Energy and Power Development appointed Powertel Communications to be the aggregator for the prepaid electricity topup service because of its strategic role of providing ICTs and Innovations in the ZESA Holdings Group. The entire prepaid electricity service is aggregated through Powertel working closely with the ZETDC and the appointed partners who include ZB Bank, CBZ Bank, Agri-Bank, POSB, Petrotrade, Homelink, GetCash, NetOne and most recently, Ecocash.
The service is now available through varying platforms which includes over-the- counter (OTC), Point of Sale, ATMs, Mobile Money platforms, Mobile Applications, online platforms and now the new convenience of Kwese Kwese with the scratch cards. This will undeniably result in increased reliability, increased convenience and increased efficiency as well as improving livelihoods through additional employment creation and revenue generation.
When reached for comment on how the Powerplus recharge cards work, the Marketing Manager of Powertel Communications- Mr. Prosper Mutswiri explained, “The mechanics of the Powerplus prepaid electricity scratch card is as easy as 1-2-3. One simply buys their scratch card from their nearest vendor and scratches on the sealed panel to reveal the voucher number. You then send an SMS to ‘434’ (currently redeemable on NetOne lines and Powertel’s 08611 numbers-more platforms to be availed soon) in the below format:-
zetdc*vouchernumber*meternumber
e.g zetdc*123456789*375900000 & send to 434
You will receive your SMS with the token number and topup your electricity on the stated meter. The beauty of the system is you do not require to be online to receive your recharge token. Furthermore, the system itself is very fool proof and secure as all topup scratch cards are encrypted and have a unique serial and batch number.”
