MTN Group’s fintech business now processes more than half a trillion dollars in annual transaction value, underscoring the scale of mobile financial services on the African continent and the growing strategic importance of the business to the pan-African operator.
The JSE-listed telecommunications giant said on Monday that its Mobile Money (MoMo) platform processed transactions valued at US$500.3-billion in the year ended 31 December 2025, a jump of 37.6% in constant currency terms. Transaction volumes also climbed, rising 14.9% to 23.3 billion for the full year.
The milestone comes as MTN doubles down on fintech as one of three strategic pillars underpinning its newly unveiled Ambition 2030 strategy, alongside connectivity and digital infrastructure.
Fintech revenue rose 23.2% in constant currency to R28.8-billion on a pro forma basis — or R30.3-billion on a reported basis, up 30% year on year.
“We are pleased with the overall development of our fintech ecosystem,” MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita said in commentary alongside the results.
Fintech transaction volumes and value were up 14.9% year on year, while transaction value grew 37.6%.
Central to MTN’s fintech ecosystem is MoMo, its mobile wallet solution, which ended 2025 with 69.5 million monthly active users — a 10% increase on the prior year and a net addition of 6.3 million customers compared to 2024.
Segmented approach
MoMo’s active agent footprint expanded 19.4% year on year to 1.4 million, boosted by the roll-out of an in-house digital sales tool across six markets and an improved agent commissioning model. Active merchants grew 15.7% to 2.1 million. MTN credited the growth to the use of a more segmented approach to managing high-value merchant relationships.
MoMo revenue grew 23.4% in constant currency, with basic services up 16% and advanced services — the higher-margin end of the business — surging 40.5%. Advanced services now account for 34.1% of total MoMo revenue excluding airtime advance, up 4.2 percentage points year on year.
The shift signals that users are moving beyond simple peer-to-peer transfers and airtime top-ups toward lending, insurance, investment products and digital payments.
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Other than MoMo, MTN’s bank-tech business is also showing strong growth in the group’s fintech portfolio. Total loan value facilitated hit $3.5-billion for the year, an 80.4% jump in constant currency.
MTN attributed the surge primarily to higher utilisation within both its marketplace lending offering and the MoMo Advance programme, particularly in Uganda and Ghana — its most mature fintech markets. New product launches in Rwanda, Zambia, Cameroon and Congo-Brazzaville added further momentum.
MTN also processed $22.3-billion in merchant payments through its MoMo platforms during the year, up 23.1% in constant currency, supported by a 20.8% rise in unique payers.
Cross-border remittances reached $6.2-billion, a 10.9% increase, as the company worked to pull traffic from informal corridors through direct partner integrations and improved service quality.
In insurance, MTN continued to grow active products in Ghana and Uganda, and in the fourth quarter it launched an investment product in Ghana allowing customers to put money into mutual funds composed of Ghanaian stocks and bonds — an early indicator of the longer-term ambition to deepen financial services penetration beyond payments.
Ghana and Rwanda were the biggest contributors to fintech revenue growth. MTN Ghana’s fintech revenue rose 33.3% in constant currency to R9.1-billion, driven by a 12.3% increase in active users to 19.3 million. The abolishment of Ghana’s controversial e-levy provided a material tailwind, with basic services — particularly withdrawals and transfers — growing 26.2% in constant currency as transaction activity rebounded following the policy change.
Advanced services in Ghana grew an even sharper 51.6% in constant currency, reflecting deepening product adoption as the Ghanaian economy stabilised and consumer confidence returned on the back of a stronger cedi and subsiding inflation.
Structural separation
MTN Uganda’s fintech revenue grew 17.4% in constant currency, with mobile money revenue up 17.6%, driven by peer-to-peer volumes and advanced services expansion. Advanced services contributed 30.5% of fintech revenue in Uganda, and the ecosystem saw transaction volumes rise 17.5% to five billion, with value up 20.7%.
The transaction value milestone comes as MTN accelerates the structural separation of its fintech businesses in key markets — a process intended to unlock standalone value and potentially facilitate external investment or listings.
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“Our fintech priorities are a major focus, especially to scale our business in Nigeria, and with a few interventions that we’re driving to achieve this, we’ve seen some green shoots from this, as you’d have seen in the MTN Nigeria results.
“Another aspect in fintech is to complete the structural separations of the business in key markets. We are at regulatory stages, which we are managing,” Mupita said in a call with journalists on Monday morning. — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
