Voice SMS technology firm Kirusa plans to roll-out services in three more African markets, a company official has revealed to ITWeb Africa.

Partnering with mobile operators, Kirusa provides voice SMS technology for feature phone users to send short voice messages.

Users then avoid costs associated with making phone calls, according to Surinder Anand, vice president for product management at Kirusa.

And Anand told ITWeb Africa that the company plans to launch Kirusa's "Voice SMS service" in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia before year-end.

He explained that in many emerging markets, voicemail hasn’t been very popular and one of the main reasons is that users don’t always want to leave a message. Also, with voicemail the calls get charged, regardless of whether a message is recorded or not.

"Africa is one of our biggest markets in terms of our carrier partners and our services have really taken off in this region," he said.

He added, "We will be launching soon in Mozambique. In countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe we are closing deals," he added.

Kirusa is currently present in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania with an active user base of 70 million from Africa and more than one billion transactions being carried out every month.