Orange’s Africa-focused mobile money operation ended 2018 with 39 million customers, a 15 per cent year-on-year increase, while user numbers for its French bank continued to steadily grow.

In its annual financial results report, Orange said the proportion of Orange Money users in Africa and the Middle East who were regularly active on the platform had also increased during the year.

At end-December 2018 its “active user” percentage was 39 per cent, compared with 35 per cent at the end of 2017. Active users are defined as accounts which have made at least one transaction each month.

Increases in the performance of its money operation, in addition to growing adoption of data, were credited with driving growth in the company’s consumer business in Africa and the Middle East.

While its financial service operation in Africa is part of its core proposition, in Europe its role in financial services is still a developing area of the company.

The operator plans to launch Orange Bank in its second market of Spain this year, after launching in France in November 2017. In its financial results statement, Orange chairman and CEO Stephane Richard (pictured) said the service had already attracted “nearly 250,000” users.

Orange Bank is aiming to sign-up 4 million customers to financial services in Europe by end-2023, when it expects to have expanded Orange Bank to a number of other countries.