Telecoms firm Airtel Zambia says its mobile money customer base has almost doubled to 3.1 million with over 450, 000 transactions on a monthly basis.

The announcement comes less than a month after Zambia’s Central Bank said mobile accounts have surpassed the number of traditional bank accounts in the Southern African country.

Airtel Zambia head of corporate communications and government relations Yuyo Kambikambi said the company now has about 3.1 million customers on its mobile money platform compared to 1.8 million that was announced in December last year.

“We are targeting to increase the daily transaction volumes to capture all registered subscribers,” Kambikambi said.

The Central Bank said it expects the number of mobile money services to increase significantly over the next three years as operators continue battling for customers.

Airtel and MTN are so far the only mobile phone operators in the country providing mobile money services in the country. Airtel Zambia has over four million subscribers while MTN has just above three million.

The two operators are however, expected to be joined by Zamtel, a state-owned operator, in the provision of mobile money services as the Central Bank is in the process of issuing a license to the operator.

Zamtel is already testing its mobile money platform.

The Central Bank’s statistics show that the country’s mobile money accounts have reached 3.4 million compared to 2 million bank accounts.

The rise in use of mobile money in Zambia has been fuelled by the increasing availability and use of mobile phones, both in rural and urban areas, are operators try to capture customers in rural areas to increase their customer base and improve on their balance sheet, according to the Central Bank.

Zambians are using mobile financial services to buy goods, pay utility bills and send and receive money.