MTN Group Fintech has signed a technology partnership with Ant International – part of Ant Group, the Chinese company behind Alipay – to rebuild its MoMo mobile money service into a “super app”, beginning with a launch in Nigeria next quarter.

Under the agreement, announced on Tuesday, MTN will use Ant’s technology to add a mini-app platform to MoMo, along with stronger fraud controls and additional engagement features for consumers and merchants. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, or whether Ant is taking a stake in the business.

The announcement comes as MTN prepares to host its capital markets day, where the group is expected to flesh out its Ambition 2030 strategy, and while it continues to carve out its fintech arm as a standalone business. Fintech has become one of MTN’s fastest-growing segments, contributing almost 13% of group revenue in 2025, and a marquee global partner strengthens the unit’s investment case ahead of any future monetisation. MTN says MoMo has more than 67 million active users across 14 African markets.

MTN is not the first South African operator to turn to Ant for this. In July 2020, rival Vodacom signed a technology partnership with Ant Group’s Alipay to build a super app in its home market – a deal Vodacom said at the time was the first instance of Ant licensing the Alipay platform to an outside party without taking an equity stake. That product launched as VodaPay in September 2021, bundling mini-programs, payments, online shopping and buy-now-pay-later credit into a single app.

Super-app model

The super-app model Ant pioneered in China has proved hard to export. Tencent’s WeChat withdrew from Africa in 2017, and VodaPay’s local traction has fallen well short of the scale Alipay enjoys at home. MTN has tried before, too, having sought to grow its Ayoba messaging service into a super app. The MoMo redesign is its most direct attempt yet – this time using the technology of the company that wrote the template.