Orange Money has 3m users

Customer base triples in a year.

Orange Money is targeted at unbanked customers in eight countries across Africa and the Middle East. It's obviously one of a growing number of such services, pioneered by M-Pesa in Kenya.

The service allows users to carry out simple banking operations and transactions from the phone. These include:

* Money transfers, where users can send money using their phone to any Orange mobile customer in the country
* Payments for bills such as electricity, water, television or phone
* Financial services including savings and insurance

And in a new project, Orange plans to expand the Orange Money offer to include international money transfers via Western Union's global system.

First launched in the Ivory Coast in December 2008, Orange Money is also available in Senegal, Madagascar, Mali, Niger and Kenya, as well as in Botswana and Cameroon. It will soon be launched in Mauritius.