Africa’s largest telecom group, MTN, is setting ambitious growth targets for its fintech business in Nigeria. Currently serving 5 million customers with financial services through its MoMo platform, the company aims to reach 30 million users over the medium term.
This expansion will leverage technology from global leaders like Alibaba and Alipay, as well as Ant International Group. MTN plans to deepen its offerings beyond payments into areas like lending, utilizing both partner banks and eventually its own balance sheet for credit provision.
The strategy comes as MTN’s fintech business demonstrates significant scale across Africa, with 70.8 million monthly active users and $330.5 billion in transaction value during the first half of this year. However, the gap between telecom customers and MoMo users highlights an opportunity to convert a large portion of its existing base.
“There are many fintech businesses there (Nigeria), MoneyPoint, OPay, PalmPay and others, but there is room for quite a lot of players,” said MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita. “We see a lot of growth there as we bring in technology from Alibaba, Alipay and Ant International to build out our proposition.”
The move into lending aligns with the IFC’s estimation that Sub-Saharan Africa has a $331 billion financing gap for micro, small and medium enterprises – including $32.2 billion in Nigeria alone. While MTN currently relies on partner banks for credit assessments, it intends to increasingly lend directly from its own balance sheet.
This evolution represents a significant shift for the telecom operator as it seeks to capitalize on an underutilized asset: its massive distribution network of mobile customers.