Econet just added something to your USSD menu that isn't a data bundle and most people are scrolling right past it. Under the Data section on *143#, EcoCloud has quietly shown up. And if you know what Google Drive and Apple iCloud are, you already understand what Econet is going for here. This is cloud storage, a service that lets you store your photos, videos, and documents on Econet's servers for a small monthly fee. No more trusting your memories to a cheap external hard drive. No more deleting photos to free up space. Just pay, upload, and your files are safe and accessible from anywhere.

It's a genuinely smart idea, and the timing makes sense. Econet has actually run an enterprise version of EcoCloud for years, data centres, business hosting, corporate infrastructure. What's sitting on USSD now is the consumer version of that. Brought down from the boardroom and placed in front of everyday Zimbabweans. In principle, that's exciting.

In practice, there's a problem.

The buying experience is seamless. You find the bundle on *143#, confirm your purchase, and within seconds an SMS lands confirming you're good to go. Clean, fast, confidence-inspiring. You download the app next it's properly branded, powered by Cassava, opens to a tidy login screen. Everything about it says this is a real product.

And then you try to sign up.

The login screen gives you a username field, a password field, and a login button. That's the entire screen. No "Create Account." No "Register." No first-time user flow. Just a form that assumes you already exist in the system, the kind of interface designed for a company employee whose IT department set up their account before they ever touched the app.

So you check the SMS. Surely there are credentials in there, or at least a link to get started? Nothing, just a payment confirmation. You try the obvious workarounds: using your phone number as the username, a default password, and waiting for an OTP that never comes. None of it works. The in-app guide, buried but findable, confirms what you've already figured out: it was written for users who already have accounts. There are no instructions for creating one because, until very recently, you weren't supposed to be creating one yourself.

That's the whole story, really. EcoCloud was built as enterprise software, where account creation is handled by administrators not by the end user. Self-registration was never part of the design because it was never part of the workflow. But now the product has been dropped onto a consumer USSD menu, sold to everyday users with no warning that the front door doesn't open yet.

You can buy EcoCloud. You can install EcoCloud. You cannot use EcoCloud.

The fix Econet needs isn't complicated, a self-registration screen, OTP verification tied to your phone number, a simple welcome flow. That's it. That's the entire gap between a broken launch and a compelling product. But until that fix ships, those bundles should come off the USSD menu. Selling something people cannot use, in a market where billing trust is already fragile, is the kind of thing that follows a brand for a long time.

Because underneath all of this, EcoCloud has a real future. Local cloud storage, priced sharply, pushed through a channel that reaches virtually every Zimbabwean with a phone that's a strong foundation. When the onboarding works, this is worth your money and worth your attention.

For now, save your dollars and watch this space. The moment Econet fixes the front door, it'll be worth walking through.