Published: 28 November 2013

Barclays Plc is planning to launch its smartphone mobile banking app, Pingit in Zimbabwe and other African countries within the next few months.

This follows the launch of the application in Kenya. The app allows Barclays U.K users to transfer money to another Barclays' customer using only their mobile number. The app works on smartphones only, specifically Android 2.2+, iOS 4.2+, Blackberry OS 5.0+. The launch in Kenya will allow money to be sent from mobile phones in the UK to those in Kenya free of charge, as part of the international rollout of its Pingit app.

"Barclays will charge no commission for international money transfers; customers will therefore only incur the wholesale costs of foreign currency exchange. People in the U.K can send up to £750 a day abroad using Pingit, and people abroad can receive up to £5,000 a day,".

When it comes to Zimbabwe the app will be a major boon for Zimbabweans in the U.K who can then send money to their relatives easily, securely and, more importantly, free of charge.

Currently the available international remittance services to Zimbabwe such as Bank Electronic transfers, Mukuru.com, Western Union and MoneyGram, all charge the sender and in other cases even the receiver a fee for the transaction.

- BH24/Techzim

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