Nigeria and India could be African social network Mxit’s biggest growth areas, says the instant messaging application’s chief marketing officer Vincent Maher.

Speaking at AfricaCom on Thursday in Cape Town, South Africa, Maher was part of a panel talk about monetising social media services in Africa.

At the briefing, Maher said that Mxit has focused more “on making chat an immersive experience."

Mxit has this week announced the launch of version 7 of its mobile application, which features a simpler user interface.

Mxit 7 has become available for the likes of Apple iOS devices on Thursday while the company has said that the application is scheduled for launch on Android and BlackBerry devices in the coming weeks.

Windows Phone 8 users are set to have access to the app early next year, Mxit has said in a statement.

Currently, Mxit says it has 7.4 million monthly active users across Africa, of which 6.5 million are in South Africa.

But Maher has said that Nigeria and India are in the company’s sights.

"Nigeria and India are likely to be our biggest growth areas," said Maher.

And amid the launch of Mxit 7 for smartphone devices such as Apple’s iPhone this week, Maher has pointed to a further shift for the social network from its traditional stronghold of feature phones to smartphones.

“We're now starting to focus more on smartphones,” said Maher.

"Users are going to start engaging with Mxit on a feature phone and they're going to switch to a smartphone at some point," he said.

Maher further said that Mxit is adopting a multi-pronged approach with regard to making money, as the service is focusing on advertising, micropayments, insights and big data analysis.