Standard Chartered said on Tuesday that it was rolling out a mobile banking platform in eight African countries, including Zimbabwe.

Karen Fawcett, Standard Chartered's CEO for retail banking, said "consumers across the continent are increasingly affluent and tech-savvy and they want convenient access to their bank, wherever they happen to be".

Reuters quoted Jaydeep Gupta, the head of retail banking for Africa and the Middle East at Standard Chartered, as saying: "Africa's populations are moving quickly to embrace mobile banking and local banks have made material investments on the digital side, so to protect and grow our market share we are investing."

Local mobile companies Econet, Telecel Zimbabwe and NetOne all run mobile money platforms.

Econet Wireless' platform, EcoCash has over 5 million registered mobile money users while Telecash has around 1 million users.

The Zimbabwe Central Bank and mobile companies are driving awareness on the use of mobile money and other electronic payment platforms as the Southern African country continues to be gripped by a cash shortage.

Zimbabwe Central Bank governor, John Mangudya, said that money was being smuggled out of the country through formal and informal means, hence the imposition of bank withdrawal limits and the greater call for increased usage of mobile money and e-payment platforms.