Bharti Airtel has been awarded the Best App for Africa and Best Mobile Money Solution awards at a continental awards in Cape Town, South Africa by an independent panel of industry experts from AfricaCom Awards.

This underscores the company’s strategy and its socio-economic contribution in sub-Saharan Africa, Donald Gwira, Head of Corporate Affairs, Airtel Ghana, said in a statement issued in Accra and copied to Ghana News Agency on Friday.

The award to Airtel Africa, a leading telecommunications service provider operating in 20 countries across Africa and Asia, reinforced its continued contribution to the pan-African telecoms landscape, the statement said.

It quoted Christian de Faria, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Africa as saying: “These two awards highlight our renewed efforts to drive a cashless society in Africa and mobile data growth, resulting from our investments over the four years we have been in Africa.

“On behalf of Airtel Africa, we are emboldened by this recognition and will continue to sharpen our focus towards tackling today’s social challenges through technology,” Fairia added.

According to the statement Airtel Money users have increased to 5.3 million, compared to 1.8 million in the corresponding quarter last year.

Meanwhile, the total number of transactions on the platform increased threefold to 131 million in the quarter, up from just 44 million in the same period in 2013; and the total value of transactions grew almost fourfold to $ 3.3 billion compared to $ 867 million last year, it said.

More than five million customers carry out an average of more than 1.4 million daily transactions, demonstrating the company’s huge contribution towards financial accessibility.

Airtel’s Internet.org application was awarded for its significant impact in making the internet accessible through a set of free basic services, ultimately driving more customers online.

Data revenue for Airtel’s African operations grew 57 per cent. Mobile data now represents 10 per cent of Africa’s overall revenue compared to 6.6 per cent a year ago.

For 2014, the AfricaCom panel focused on innovation and relevance to market needs.

The AfricaCom Awards 2014 reflected the creativity and vibrancy towards delivering effective solutions to market challenges and feted breakthroughs and players shaping the telecoms and ICT sectors.