The sjambok is out again and the people of Zimbabwe are in for some economic lashing. Over the past few weeks, we have seen a price hike after price but one thing has remained the same. It has been months since Econet and it’s fellow mobile network operators increased the price of data and SMS bundles. That is about to change as Econet has just announced that they will be increasing the price of their SMS and Data bundles tomorrow-19 May 2022.

Here is Econet’s full statement on the issue:

Dear customers,
Please note, we will review our ZWL Voice, Data & SMS bundle prices effective, Thursday 19 May, 2022.
To access Voice & Data bundles ideal *143#

In case you are one of those optimistic people who need reminding here is what you need to know about ZWL price reviews. They never ever involve the price coming down because the ZWL is losing value each passing day even officially. Just yesterday even the usually stable auction rate lost an astounding 49% value which brings us back to our sjambok metaphor.

Expect a steep increase because as we have said, prices hadn’t changed in a while and the last time we had a price review the unofficial market rate was below $250 ZWL and now some are asking for rates as high as $450 ZWL. You can easily predict what the prices are going to be by looking at Econet’s USD bundles and using a rate of around $400 ZWL For example, expect to pay around $1 200 ZWL or thereabout for the monthly WhatsApp bundle. Currently, the bundle is going for the equivalent of U$0.92.

Click here to see current Econet ZWL and USD equivalent bundle prices.