The UK’s Standard Chartered Bank is to rollout out the latest version of its mobile and online banking platform to one million retail customers in eight African countries.

This represents “the most extensive digital rollout of its kind in Africa by an international bank”, it claimed.

It has deployments planned in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the first half of 2016. Later in the year, it will also offer fingerprint recognition technology in these markets for security-conscious customers logging into their accounts.

Karen Fawcett, Standard Chartered’s CEO for retail banking, explained the move by saying its African customers are growing in affluence, plus they are increasingly tech-savvy.

By early next year, the bank expects 35 per cent of all transactions in Africa to be done through online channels.

Its approach in African is consistent with initiatives it has made in other parts of the world, including Pakistan. The bank last year announced it will invest $1.5 billion in technology globally over the next three years.

Standard Chartered’s mobile banking app is being launched for the first time in six of the markets: Botswana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Nigeria and Ghana, its customers will move to the bank’s new global platform. The app enables customers to check balances, transfer money and pay bills through their smartphones.