Vodafone M-Pesa has announced that it has over 25 million active customers across Africa, Asia and Europe.

According to the company active M-Pesa customers increased by 27,1% to 25.3 million in the year ended 31 March 2016.

Growth has been spurred on by market launches in Albania and Ghana, with a support network of over 261,000 agents in 11 M-Pesa countries, the company explains.

Vodafone Group Director of Mobile Money, Michael Joseph, said: "Since 2007, M-Pesa has enhanced the lives and livelihoods of people without bank accounts, giving them access to essential financial services through their mobile phones.

"I am delighted and proud that M-Pesa has reached the 25 million active customers milestone. M-Pesa continues to expand, evolving beyond traditional money transfers to encompass savings and loans, payment of salaries and benefits, settlement of utility bills and school fees and to enable vital health and agricultural solutions."

Vodafone says it has entered into several partnerships with public and private sector organisations, which have also helped to bolster the takeup of M-Pesa.

Alliances have been established with the Ministry of Social Development in Lesotho to pay welfare grants using M-Pesa, with Kenya's Ministry of Agriculture to pay fertiliser subsidies and in Mozambique where global development agencies are using M-Pesa to pay employee salaries and allowances.

In Tanzania solar solution companies are using the mobile money service to supply energy.

Over the past 12 months, Vodafone has agreed a series of deals with partners to enable M-Pesa customers to transact with other services and across borders.

These deals include global framework agreements with two international money transfer hubs, TransferTo and MFS for Africa, as well as agreements with MTN Mobile Money and mobile operators in Tanzania to enable domestic mobile money services to be fully interoperable.