Fintech transaction values grew by more than a third to $330 billion in the first half of 2026, driving strong performance for MTN Group.
Africa’s largest telecommunications operator said the volume of fintech transactions increased by 17% to 13 billion.
Active fintech agents grew to 1.4 million, while active merchants rose by more than 18% to 2.3 million, with advanced services leading overall fintech growth, according to the company.
Mobile Money (MoMo) is increasingly becoming MTN’s key growth driver.
Revenue for the service grew by 17.8% — excluding airtime advance — supported by demand for advanced services in Ghana, Rwanda, Zambia and Benin.
"This was partially offset by more muted growth in cash-out, peer-to-peer and withdrawals in Ghana, Uganda, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon," says Ralph Mupita, president and CEO of MTN Group.
Increasing competitive and regulatory pricing pressures, alongside industry-wide maturation of basic MoMo services, contributed to the moderation in basic revenue growth, says Mupita.
"Our focus remains on modernising distribution and accelerating the shift towards advanced services," says Mupita.
"Advanced services revenue continued to grow strongly, up 31.8%, increasing its contribution to total MoMo revenue — excluding airtime advance — to 37.4%. This reflects our continued focus on driving everyday usage through payments and driving monetisation through our recently launched lending platform."
Fintech revenue increased by 13.3% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, despite the suspension of airtime advance in Nigeria and operational disruptions within the Uganda agent network, says Mupita.
"We expect revenue growth to progressively improve in the second half of 2026, as lending is reinstated in Nigeria through the four newly onboarded providers and volumes ramp up over the period," he adds.
Revenue growth is expected to remain below the medium-term guidance range of high-20% to low-30% in the near term, before reaccelerating.
Following the launch of its Ambition 2030 strategy, MTN advanced strategic initiatives including the planned acquisition of tower company IHS Holdings and a share buyback programme.
On a pro forma basis, the proposed transaction to buy the remaining shares in IHS is accretive to revenue, profit after tax, and adjusted headline earnings per share, says Mupita. The transaction has received approval from various regulators, including Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
MTN will sell down 30% of IHS Nigeria to local investors on an arm's-length commercial basis as part of conditional approvals, with closing anticipated in the second half of 2026, says Mupita.
MTN has also launched a share buyback programme of approximately 31 million ordinary shares for up to R6 billion. The buyback forms part of the framework to return 40% to 60% of equity free cash flow to shareholders through dividends or buybacks, Mupita notes.
Group service revenue grew by 17.5% in constant-currency terms to R115 billion for the six months to June 2026. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation before once-off items expanded by almost a quarter to R56bn.
Growth was led by operations in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon.
MTN South Africa recorded a 1.5% increase in service revenue, reflecting management actions to improve the quality of its prepaid customer base.
MTN South Africa's service revenue growth picked up to 2.3% in the second quarter, compared to 0.7% in the first quarter.
Group subscriber numbers rose 6.7% year-on-year to 317.7 million, with active data subscribers increasing 10.3% to 179.3 million.
Data revenue grew 29.2%, while voice revenue increased 2.4%. Adjusted headline earnings per share surged 21.3% to 793c, and return on capital employed rose to 31.5%. Capital expenditure excluding leases stood at R19.7bn, representing a capital intensity of 16.6%.
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