Small “pet project” started in 2006 which will drive MTN’s financial growth over the next 5 years
Ricus Reeders, securities wealth manager at PSG Wealth, said that MTN Group will significantly benefit from the growth of financial technology in Africa.
MTN recently announced it would launch a new financial super app in its major market, Nigeria, ahead of a wider rollout across the continent.
Reeders said that Africa is the fastest-growing fintech market globally, expected to grow five times over the next five years, and that MTN will be a major driver of that growth.
MTN Group’s fintech offering is centred on its Mobile Money (MoMo) platform, an app that has faced its share of challenges since its launch.
What would become MoMo was the brainchild of Benin native, Dare Okoudjou, who would eventually join MTN Group’s strategy team in Johannesburg in 2006.
Okoudjou pitched early MoMo ideas to the group’s executives amid a period when MTN’s Banking product was losing money.
“MTN Banking was way ahead of its time, but it had a number of fundamental drawbacks: those with bank accounts didn’t need another account,” he said in an MTN blog post.
“Meanwhile, those without accounts just wanted a simple money transfer solution.”
Okoudjou thought of a solution, a mobile-focused, digital money transfer and fintech platform that would cost less than larger infrastructure investments and banking products.
At the time, MTN Group was solely focused on growing its traditional airtime business, so MoMo “felt like a distraction, some sort of pet project,” said Okoudjou.
Despite this, he and his team persevered with the idea and kept pitching the solution to the executive committee.
“Okoudjou estimated that it could be worth the equivalent of some 4% of the Group’s then revenue – about as valuable as SMS,” MTN said previously.
“Not everyone on the exco was convinced, but most did see benefits over and above the immediate financial bottom line.”
What would become MoMo would reduce churn, lower distribution costs, and support MTN Group’s agenda of inclusion and digital transformation.
“But no one at the time thought it would become a massive thing,” said Okoudjou.
Early days of MTN MoMo
The MoMo platform was finally up and running by 2009, initially launching across MTN’s West and Central African markets.
Okoudjou’s brainchild received a major backer in the form of Christian de Faria, who at the time was the executive in charge of those markets.
Uganda and Rwanda were the first countries to see MoMo after De Faria drove the product launch across the markets under his portfolio.
However, MoMo faced constant delays and challenges due to regulatory issues, especially in Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon.
Growth was slow for most of its existence, but by 2023, MTN said that Mobile Money experienced explosive growth. That year, it saw 72.5 million active users across 16 countries.
The platform processed more than $270 billion across its African markets, which would include South Africa after the platform was launched domestically in 2020.
As MoMo took off, Okoudjou would eventually leave MTN Group and has since founded his own tech company, the African Internet infrastructure firm Onafriq, formerly known as MFS Africa.
Meanwhile, MoMo would continue expanding. During the launch of MoMo in the South African market, MTN said it followed “successes in other African countries.”
“We have learnt what to do as well as what not to do, and we believe that MTN has a significant footprint in South Africa to reach underbanked and underserved communities,” it said.
“We see MoMo playing a significant role for both the man on the street as well as the South African economy by enabling enterprise development at the formal and informal level.”
Godfrey Motsa, the CEO of MTN South Africa at the time, said that the launch of the platform would be a pivotal step in the group’s strategy.
“It represents MTN’s participation in the next phase of increasing convergence we are seeing between financial services and mobile technology,” he said.
MoMo offers cash deposits and withdrawals, tap-to-pay and QR code–based payments and the ability to buy airtime and pay utilities like water and electricity directly on the app.
Analyst foresees significant growth opportunity with MTN fintech
Last week, MTN Group announced the launch of a new super app based on MTN MoMo in Nigeria, with a wider rollout across other African countries in the offing.
It followed the group’s announcement of a strategic partnership with Ant International, the Singaporean fintech company that powers Alipay, the Chinese payment giant.
“The partnership, which is expected to launch in Nigeria next quarter, will introduce a super app platform designed to enhance user experience,” it said at the time.
“It will deepen digital inclusion and enable a next-generation ecosystem for digital finance, lifestyle and commerce services around MoMo.”
It said that the partnership and super app will allow customers to use the payments, savings and value-added services more intuitively and responsively.
Speaking to BusinessDayTV, Reeders said that fintech would be a major driver of MTN Group’s financial growth, even amid challenging macroeconomic conditions in its African markets.
“What really is going to be the driver of their growth is fintech, and not because it’s company-specific, but because the fintech market in Africa is the fastest growing globally,” he said.
“There are some estimates that from where we are right now, in 2026, that it could be five times the size it is right now in five years’ time.”
Reeders said that MTN is directly exposed to that growth, and to a certain extent, it is leading the market in fintech adoption.
“It has to be good for them; it has to be good for their bottom line and for the future earnings potential,” he said.
“There will be risks, you know, whether it be in Nigeria or Ghana or wherever, but I think the exposure to that market is too important to ignore.”
MTN Group share price for the 2026 year-to-date
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