In the current reporting period, MTN’s key fintech markets – Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Benin, Cameroon, and Rwanda – all recorded growth in their respective markets.

MTN Group’s fintech unit continues to grow with record profitability for the financial year, ending December 2023, the group reported.

The telco announced yesterday that in 2023 the overall development of its fintech ecosystem remained strong, with a 32.2% increase in transaction volumes to 17.6 billion transactions and a 47.4% increase in transaction value to $272.1 billion.

MTN's fintech revenues continued a strong overall growth trajectory in the year, increasing by 21.8% year-on-year.

MTN Group CEO, Ralph Mupita, commented: “The momentum in advanced services revenue (up 54.8 %) was particularly pleasing and increased its mix relative to basic services (up 21.2 %).

“The contribution of advanced services to total fintech revenue rose to 20.4% (up 4.4pp). Active MoMo users increased by five percent to 72.5 million. Agents and merchants grew by 5.4% and 42.5% to 1.3 million and 2.1 million respectively.”

In the current reporting period, MTN’s key fintech markets – Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Benin, Cameroon, and Rwanda – all recorded growth in their respective markets.

These countries are critical fintech markets for MTN Group, which aims to develop the continent's largest and most valuable fintech platform.

Mupita said the group is confident of its fintech plans and is supporting the unit by the implementation of multiple measures.

He said: “We renewed the scope of partnership with Ericsson for our core wallet platform to enable more focus on advance services product development.”

He added that MTN Group is continuing to work with Ericsson´s Converged Wallet platform, alongside other ‘market proven’ specialised solutions.

Furthermore, Mupita said the signing of definitive agreements with MasterCard to a minority investment in MTN Group Fintech was an “exciting milestone in our strategy”, which complements the larger commercial agreements already concluded in August 2023.

“These will support the continued development and growth of technology and infrastructure to drive financial inclusion across the African continent.

“We have planned some commercial launches focused on card issuance and acceptance across the footprint.”

This relationship with MasterCard, Mupita said “is a key enabler for the acceleration of our fintech business' payments and remittance services”.

He continued: “MTN will continue to explore opportunities for other value-enhancing partnerships and investments, subject to market conditions, with strategic partners and long-term investors.”