A new mobile banking service is being launched in Tanzania by the People's Bank of Zanzibar (PBZ).

The Z-Pesa by Zantel solution will be introduced later in the year and aims to meet the rising demand for financial services, the Tanzania Daily News reports.

Director of Marketing and Business Development at PBZ Juma Hafidh explained the financial institution now has 138,000 customers, so mobile banking will be the perfect way to ease the strain on the banking system.

"The installation of the mobile system has been completed and what remains is finalisation of some logistics with regulatory bodies," he said.

Mobile banking is already increasing in Tanzania. According to the Bank of Tanzania's Monetary Policy Statement for the mid-year review, there were 19,445,248 registered customers as of the end of November 2011.

This was up from 14,327 at the end of June 2008.

Director of Economic Research and Policy at the country's central bank Dr Joseph Massawe recently claimed the introduction of mobile banking is improving financial inclusion for those living in rural parts of Tanzania, the Daily News reports.