Many governments and financial sector regulators in the region, however, are worried that mobile banking and payment initiatives will be increasingly targeted for fraud and identity theft.

Muchenje, however, said the meeting in Lusaka was also aimed at creating a platform for best practices in mobile phone transactions in the region.

Although mobile phone transactions have been approved in Zambia, the country's minister of communications and transportation, Geoffrey Lungwangwa, said there is a need to continue leveraging technology in order to build more advanced features and functionality to realize the benefits of ICT.

"ICT has transformed the way of doing business and industry shareholders should explore further strategies to deliver enhanced services to unbanked and under-banked markets," Lungwangwa said.

In countries where mobile phone transactions are restricted, service providers and companies that provide mobile payment solution said they are pushing telecom sector regulators and central banks to come up with policies that support the introduction of new systems.