The partnership makes Barclays the eighth bank to partner Safaricom as an agent or super agent. Account holders can deposit and withdraw money using their mobile phones while M-Pesa agents who bank with Barclays can also use the system to buy their electronic float for their daily operations.

Michael Joseph, CEO, Safaricom, issued a stark warning to banks that fail to adopt mobile money transfer services like M-Pesa: "Unless banks change and adopt this technology, there will not be anything like retail banking in 10 years."

Adan Mohamed, regional MD, East and West Africa, Barclays, says: "In addition to meeting the needs of customers even at the lowest income levels, the delivery of financial services through mobile telephony is where the real innovation and development is taking place for the financial services industry."

Launched in Kenya in 2007, M-Pesa now claims over 12.5 million customers and nearly 20,000 agent outlets throughout the country. It has since been launched in other countries, including South Africa and Fiji and introduced an interest-bearing savings account, M-Kesho.