Mobile money subscribers on the EcoCash platform run by Zimbabwe's Econet Wireless have now soared to 5 million, the company said on Thursday.

Econet has expanded its mobile money offering to include bill payments, cross border remittances, person-to-person transfers and has just introduced a tap and pay service for its EcoCash card.

Mobile money is among value added services that Econet Wireless is positioning to counter a drop in voice telephony revenues.

"With a subscriber base that has soared to 4.9 million and over 21 000 registered agents over a four year period, EcoCash is now among the leading mobile money service providers on the continent," Econet said.

Value added services such as EcoCash now contribute approximately 11% to the company's overall revenue generating position. Overall revenues fall by 17.7% to $323 million in the half year period to the end of September.

The company is banking on its partnerships for the mobile money offering, having opened up a wide network of "international remittance channels" to tap into the huge expat population of Zimbabweans in countries such as South Africa, Botswana and the United Kingdom.

"These innovations (such as partnerships with Pepkor, Mastercard, Western Union and others) help to harness capital flows into the country. The diaspora community (is enabled) to send money directly from their host country mobile phones to mobile phones in Zimbabwe," Econet Wireless stated.

The company has also added a mobile application for the EcoCash platform which is accessible on the Google Play Store and the Apple store aimed to "improve transaction convenience" for users.