Orange saw subscriber numbers for its prepaid money service in emerging markets grow by 59 per cent last year, according to its annual results.

The company had 8.9 million users of its Orange Money service at the end of 2013, up from 5.6 million users at the end of the previous year.

Although the figure is credited in the company’s results as covering both Africa and the Middle East, the former is the main contributor.

Services accessible via Orange Money include P2P money transfer, airtime purchase and bill payment.

Stephane Richard (pictured), chairman and CEO of Orange, talked up mobile payments products as an area where the operator had made progress. “Our strategy of delivering innovation in the services we provide is increasingly successful, for instance with our cloud offers and mobile payment products”.