MTN Group eyes banking licences as lending becomes its next big bet

Africa’s largest telecoms operator, MTN Group, is exploring banking licences in select markets as it considers expanding its lending business using its own balance sheet.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Mupita, disclosed this on Tuesday while speaking with journalists, as MTN intensifies its push into fintech and seeks to grow revenue beyond its traditional telecommunications business.

Lending has emerged as one of the fastest-growing areas of MTN’s mobile money operations, alongside services such as payments and e-commerce, making financial services an increasingly important part of the group’s growth strategy.

What they are saying

MTN currently provides loans to customers through partnerships with banks. However, Mupita said the group is assessing the possibility of obtaining banking licences in markets where it has large customer bases and significant funds held in mobile money wallets.

• “We’re beginning to explore, where it makes sense and where there are large customer bases (and) significant floats in wallets, whether it may make sense to have some sort of banking licence that enables us to take deposits,” Mupita said.

Under the proposed model, MTN would gradually use its own balance sheet to provide loans, although the company does not intend to abandon its existing partnerships with banks for lending.

Mupita said the move would be selective rather than applied across all of MTN’s markets, with any transition to balance-sheet lending expected to happen gradually because of the risks involved.

He identified lending as the major growth opportunity within the group’s expanding fintech business.

• “The big growth now, which will be the growth of the future, is actually lending.”

Get up to speed

MTN’s consideration of banking licences comes as the group continues to restructure and expand its fintech operations across Africa.

In 2025, MTN announced plans to separate its fintech operations in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda as part of efforts to create more focused and scalable financial services businesses.

• The group subsequently completed the structural separation of its mobile money business in Ghana, establishing it as a standalone fintech entity. The development, disclosed on April 2, 2026, formed part of MTN’s broader strategy to scale its digital financial services business across African markets.

In Nigeria, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc announced in April 2026 that it would sell a 60% stake in its fintech subsidiaries, MoMo Payment Service Bank and Y’ello Digital Financial Services (YDF), to MTN Group in a transaction valued at N152.06 billion.

The group’s fintech business has also become a significant revenue contributor. Nairametrics reported in November 2025 that MTN’s fintech operations were generating about N43 billion in revenue per quarter.

What you should know

MTN’s renewed focus on fintech comes as the group continues to post strong financial results while expanding its core telecommunications operations across its markets.

For the 2025 financial year, MTN Group reported a nearly 25% increase in service revenue to R218 billion, marking the final year of its Ambition 2025 strategy. The group attributed the strong performance largely to its Nigerian and Ghanaian operations.

• In Nigeria, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc recorded a record N1.09 trillion profit before tax in the first half of 2026, representing a 75.4% increase from the same period a year earlier. Revenue also rose by 25.9% to N2.99 trillion, according to its unaudited financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2026.

Beyond its telecoms and fintech businesses, MTN is also advancing plans to expand its infrastructure footprint in Nigeria. The group has secured conditional approval from the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for its proposed $6.2 billion acquisition of IHS Holding Limited, moving the transaction closer to completion.