Princewill Ekwujuru
Zain, mobile telecommunications provider in the Middle East and Africa, has announced the expansion of ‘Zap’,  its mobile  service to  some other African nations of Niger , Sierra Leone and  Malawi .

The move follows  launch of the service in Kenya , Tanzania and Uganda in February 2009.
Zap is a comprehensive and accessible mobile commerce service in Africa, now serving over 150 million people in six countries on the continent, allowing them, in many cases, access to advanced financial services through their mobile phones.

This mobile commercial  service was introduced in the three countries in partnership with leading international banks, allowing Zain customers in Zap-enabled countries to use their mobile phone to:  withdraw cash or pay for goods and services, school fees and utility bills, including electricity and water; receive money from or send money to friends and family; send and receive money to their bank accounts; top-up their or someone else’s airtime and manage their bank accounts.

Zap is also part of Zain’s pioneering ‘One Network’ platform, meaning that customers can benefit from all of the Zap features when travelling to an associate Zain ‘One Network’ country. The platform allows travelling customers to move across geographic borders without roaming surcharges, make calls/SMS at local rates, receive incoming calls for free as well as recharge their mobile phones with locally purchased top up cards. “

The expansion of this revolutionary mobile commerce service to Malawi, Niger and Sierra Leone is an extremely important step in pushing the boundaries of mobile communications,” said Dr. Saad Al Barrak, Zain Group CEO. “We are proud to play a role in improving people’s lives by giving 150 million people access to effective and efficient financial services, fulfilling our brand promise of ‘A wonderful world’.