Just like Mpesa, Zap will be used to pay bills, goods and service; receive money and send money to friends and family; send and receive money for bank accounts; withdraw cash; top up mobile air-time accounts; and manage bank accounts across the region.

"M-commerce has the potential to transform banking in Africa and will help overcome many of the obstacles presented by providing banking services to remote and rural communities," said Kariuki Ngari, Standard Chartered Bank's Area Head of Consumer Banking - East Africa.

"Research has shown that m-banking and m-payments can help lower the transaction costs of money transfer; increase the flow of money by making it easier to send smaller amounts and introduce those without bank accounts to a means of secure financial management," said Chris Gabriel, CEO, Zain Africa.

Zain plans to roll out the Zap service to the rest of its African and Middle East network and offer it as part of its One Network package.

Zap has at least 3,000 retail outlets in the region and customers will use the service to transfer between 50 Kenyan shillings (US$0.64) and 25,000 Kenya shillings.