Grace Ashiru
MTN Group is pushing to enter Nigeria’s lending market as it moves closer to completing the structural separation of its mobile money business, a process that would unlock the MoMo platform for independent growth and outside investment.
Speaking at the company’s capital markets day on Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita said MTN is working to upgrade its banking licence in Nigeria to enable it to offer lending, international remittance, and a broader range of payment services. “The separations are complex as we have to minimise value leakage,” Mupita said, adding that on fintech, the company is open to minority shareholding of up to 30% and is not driven by IPO timelines.
Nigeria’s credit gap remains enormous. According to a 2025 report by the National Credit Guarantee Company, nearly 80% of Nigerian MSMEs lack access to formal credit, while a Stears report estimates the sector faces a $236 billion funding shortfall. MTN’s push into lending is a direct bid to capture a share of that market, where fintech rivals OPay and PalmPay have already established themselves, partly because MoMo’s existing licence in Nigeria excluded key services.
In November 2024, MTN Nigeria applied for Payment Solution Service Provider and Payment Terminal Service Provider licences through MoMo PSB, though Mupita confirmed on Wednesday that the approval process is still ongoing.
The Nigerian push is happening alongside a broader corporate restructuring. MTN Nigeria’s shareholders approved the transfer of majority control over its fintech subsidiaries, including MoMo Payment Service Bank Limited, to MTN Group Fintech B.V. at an annual general meeting on April 30, 2026. Ghana completed a similar separation on March 31, becoming the first market to finalize the process.
To further build out the platform, MTN this week announced it is working with Ant Group’s Alipay unit to revamp the MoMo ecosystem, with the Alipay-powered platform expected to go live in the coming weeks.
MTN Fintech generated approximately $2.8 billion in revenue in 2025, processed more than $500 billion in transaction value, and handled over 23 billion transactions across its markets. The platform now serves more than 70 million active MoMo users, works with over 2 million merchants, and supports an agent network of more than 1.4 million people
