MTN Group operates Africa’s largest mobile network, with more than 317 million telecom subscribers spread across the continent’s biggest economies. Its fintech platform, MoMo, currently serves roughly 70 million monthly active users who send money, pay bills, and borrow.
That leaves a gap of nearly 247 million subscribers who already have a telecom relationship with MTN but sit outside its fintech ecosystem. Serigne Dioum, CEO of MTN Group Fintech, has made closing that divide central to the company’s growth strategy.
His plan pushes MoMo beyond basic peer-to-peer money transfers into lending, merchant payments, cross-border remittances, and digital commerce across 14 African markets.
MoMo processed $330 billion in the first half of 2026
MTN Group Fintech already operates at a scale that rivals many of Africa’s largest banks by transaction volume and customer reach. The platform processed more than 13 billion transactions worth over $330 billion in the first half of 2026, Connecting Africa reported.
Despite those numbers, Dioum believes MoMo is barely scratching the surface of African financial services demand and growth potential. MoMo currently originates approximately 18 loans every second, with an average loan size of $20, he said at the MTN Fintech Summit.
He estimates that 90% of lending demand across MTN’s African markets remains unaddressed by existing financial services providers, TechCabal reported.
“Lending is part of the value chain that we want to own,” Dioum told TechCabal at the MTN Group Fintech Summit 2026 in Johannesburg.
MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita reinforced that direction on August 25, telling journalists that lending represented the company’s biggest future growth opportunity, CNBC Africa reported.
Nigeria and South Africa will define MTN’s fintech trajectory
Two markets sit at the center of Dioum’s expansion plan, and both present very different challenges for MoMo’s growth trajectory. Nigeria, MTN’s largest market by subscribers, recently appointed Bode Abifarin as Managing Director and CEO of MoMo Payment Service Bank, Vanguard reported.
Abifarin, who took office on September 1, will focus on expanding MoMo’s regulatory licenses and aligning the telecom and fintech divisions. MTN is also pursuing a structural separation of its Nigerian fintech operations to attract dedicated investment and regulatory focus. The group proposed injecting ₦152.06 billion for a 60% stake in the fintech business, with MTN Nigeria retaining the remaining 40% share, Technext24 reported.
South Africa presents a different challenge because the country already has high banking penetration and sophisticated financial infrastructure. Physical cash still dominates everyday commerce, and MoMo has struggled to match its penetration rates from less banked markets elsewhere. Dioum told the summit that the country’s evolving payments infrastructure is creating openings for new competitors rather than serving as a barrier.
Ant International partnership signals MTN’s super-app ambitions
MTN has partnered with Ant International, whose technology infrastructure supports more than two billion users globally across its financial services platforms. The deal gives MoMo access to a super-app architecture where third-party businesses can build mini-applications and offer services to customers.
The company’s broader ambition is to make MoMo the platform where customers manage their entire financial lives, not just send money. Smartphone adoption is accelerating that transition, allowing MTN to systematically migrate users from legacy feature-phone USSD channels to the MoMo app.
MTN’s fintech push faces regulatory and competitive headwinds
Building a financial ecosystem across 14 countries means navigating a patchwork of licensing requirements and regulatory frameworks in each market. Dioum has positioned the regulatory relationship as collaborative, telling the summit that he views regulators as partners with shared inclusion goals.
MTN also faces competition from established fintech players like OPay, Moniepoint, and PalmPay, which collectively serve tens of millions of customers. Industry estimates from 2026 place OPay’s user base above 60 million, making it a formidable rival in Nigeria’s payments market, Within Nigeria noted.
Key numbers behind MTN’s fintech push
- 317.7 million: Total MTN telecom subscribers across all markets, as of June 2026.
- 70 million: Monthly active MoMo users across 14 African countries as of June 2026.
- $330 billion: Transaction value MoMo processed in the first half of 2026.
- 18 per second: Current MoMo loan origination rate, with an average ticket of $20.
- 90%: Estimated unaddressed lending demand across MTN’s African markets, Dioum stated.
