Financial services company Barclays Bank plans to launch its smartphone mobile banking app, Pingit, in the Kenyan market later this week, allowing Kenyans in the diaspora to send money to recipients via their mobile phones at no cost.

The service allows users to send and receive money across international borders instantly and at no commission fee. Customers; however, incur the wholesale costs of foreign currency exchange.

The app, which was unveiled six months ago in the UK, has already achieved over one million downloads in that country.

And Kenya marks the first international rollout of the Pingit app, even ahead of a planned roll-out in European countries in 2013.

Barclays plans to unveil the service also in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, Ghana, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Seychelles and Mauritius by the end of 2012.

The unveiling of the service is set to pit now compete with mobile money transfer service M-Pesa, which through a 2011 partnership with Western Union, allows users in the UK and 44 other countries to send money to Kenya.

Barclays is targeting more than 200, 000 people of Kenyan origin living in the UK, foreign investors, expatriates and people who travel to the UK for business regularly.

So far, about 120,000 subscribers of Barclays Hello Money, a free mobile banking service available to customers in Kenya, are eligible to begin receiving money from the UK using Pingit.

Users can send up to £750 a day using Pingit, and receive up to £5,000.

“Pingit is quick, convenient, secure and free – it’s revolutionised how people send and receive money in the UK, and now has the potential to transform international payments around the world,” said Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclays Retail and Business Banking in a statement.

“Kenya is a key market where Barclays has operated for over 95 years, and we anticipate significant demand for mobile payments across Africa,” Jenkins added.

The Kenyan diaspora sent home about $600 million in the first half of 2012 according to the Central Bank of Kenya.