MTN Group is looking to take its fintech business a step further by exploring banking licences in selected African markets.
The telecom giant says it is considering markets where it has large customer bases and significant funds held in mobile wallets. Securing banking licences would allow MTN to accept deposits and potentially use its own balance sheet to provide loans.
The move signals a shift in MTN’s fintech strategy. While the company currently provides lending services through partnerships with banks, owning banking licences could give it greater control over financial products and customer relationships.
Lending becomes MTN’s next big opportunity
According to MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita, lending is expected to become a major growth driver for the company’s fintech business.
The opportunity is supported by the scale of MTN’s MoMo platform. In the first half of 2026, MoMo recorded 70.8 million monthly active users, while its active agent network reached 1.4 million and its merchant base grew to 2.3 million.
MoMo also processed about 13 billion transactions, worth $330.5 billion, during the period.
These numbers give MTN a large customer and transaction base that could support the expansion of credit, savings and other financial services.
Nigeria could be a key market
Nigeria remains particularly important to MTN’s strategy.
MTN’s fintech operations in the country generated ₦77 billion in revenue during the first half of 2026 through MoMo Payment Service Bank and Y’ello Digital Financial Services.
The company has also been restructuring its fintech operations, with MTN Nigeria announcing plans to transfer a 60% stake in its fintech business to MTN Group for ₦152.06 billion.
If MTN secures additional banking licences, the company could move from simply connecting customers to financial services to becoming a more direct provider of credit and deposit products.
However, the expansion is expected to be selective rather than a push to obtain banking licences in every African market where MTN operates.
For MTN, the strategy is clear: turn its massive telecom and mobile-money customer base into a bigger financial-services opportunity, with lending at the centre of the next phase of growth.
