MTN’s Mobile Money (MoMo) financial services platform has added a personal loan offering and announced partnerships with SA-born Fintech start-up Zapper and with services aggregator QuickBus.

MTN said MoMo Personal Loans, in partnership with credit provider Lndr (PTY) LTD, “offers a seamless application and loan approval process.”

The company explained that a portion of the funds “can then be safely, quickly and easily disbursed into the MoMo wallet so that VAS or cash-out funds can be purchased, and the balance of the loan fund can be paid into the customer’s bank account.”

Customers need to log in and apply for a MoMo personal loan and check if they are eligible. If so, the qualifying applicant will be required to upload the required documents and then wait for SMS confirmation of the assessment outcome, which will be shared within 24-48 hours.

MTN said personal loans range from R2,000 to R180,000, with R1,000 of the approved funds being disbursed into the customer’s MoMo wallet.

Zapper feature

“The MoMo Zapper feature allows customers to make instant virtual payments to Zapper-enabled merchants across SA using the QR scan feature on the MoMo app. Through the QuickBus feature, customers can compare and purchase bus tickets across 25 different operators providing inter-provincial and cross-border travel,” the operator added.

Felix Kamenga, MTN SA Chief Officer for Mobile Financial Services, said, “Financial inclusion is critical in building a more equitable society and MoMo offers the very best of digital financial services to emerging markets, and it’s just set to grow.”

“We want to unlock economic growth through financial and digital solutions for consumers and businesses of all sizes. As we grow our service offering, we aim to create a marketplace that supports cashless and digital economies through affordable, inclusive, understandable, and comprehensive financial services.”

The Zapper feature allows customers to pay 27,000 merchants nationwide and is cost-free for MoMo customers.

Kamenga noted: “Our new QuickBus partnership means that customers not only have a convenient compare-book-and-pay payment option for bus ticket purchases at the click of a button, but it also opens them up to exclusive discounted rates on trips offered by operators”.

In August last year ITWeb reported on the operator’s half-year performance, according to which in the first six months of its fiscal year 2022, it had 60.7 million MoMo users, representing 24% growth year-on-year.

CEO Ralph Mupita is quoted: “We made progress in our work to separate our Fintech and fibre businesses from our GSM business, and have started the process of engagement with select potential strategic investors into the group Fintech structure, the outcome of which should be concluded by the end of the year.”