NAIROBI, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's Family Bank has inked a partnership deal with international financial technology firm SimbaPay to launch an instant money transfer service from the east African nation to China.

Godfrey Kamau, Family Bank chief operations officer, said the funds will be sent through messaging service WeChat and thus help boost Kenya-China trade.

"This is a huge milestone for us and our customers. We are glad to extend, more so to our SME customers, a solution that offers an instant, reliable, traceable and affordable channel to send money to their suppliers and business partners in China," Kamau said in a joint statement.

Using QR codes, SimbaPay developed a third-party payment aggregator that enables funds delivery into WeChat's billion subscribers.

According to SimbaPay, more than 7 million customers and businesses in Kenya will now access SimbaPay's international money transfer service to send money to China's WeChat Pay from Family Bank's PesaPap mobile banking application and USSD service.

WeChat, which has more than a billion subscribers, is the largest payment and social media app in China.

"This initiative therefore connects Africa's largest mobile money ecosystem to China's largest payment service in real-time," said SimbaPay.

It said traders in Kenya already use WeChat to communicate with their suppliers in China, hence this solution will be faster and less expensive as all a user requires when sending money to China is the recipient's mobile phone number.

"Money sent by Family Bank customers and non-customers via the SimbaPay service is instantly delivered to WeChat Pay recipients in Chinese yuan. This service offers the sender a chance to review the transaction and exchange rate applicable before releasing the payment," said SimbaPay.