Orange rolled out its mobile money platform in Morocco, becoming the 18th country in the Middle East and Africa regions to have access to the service.

Its launch comes almost a year after the operator secured approval from the country’s central bank.

The move will allow users in the country to use their mobile phones to make payments, transfer money across the country and withdraw cash at points of sale approved by Orange Money Maroc.

Non-Orange customers can also take advantage of the service by downloading a mobile application.

Orange said 18 countries in Africa and the Middle East region now have access to its Orange Money solution, with Morocco following a launch in Jordan in January.

In a wider update, Orange said it now has 45 million customer using Orange Money, amounting to a total transaction value of €2.6 billion in 2019.