In the first half of 2025, MTN’s MoMo, the financial arm of Africa’s largest telecom operator, MTN, processed $2.1 billion in international remittances across 14 African markets, proof that its fintech arm is no longer just a side hustle. And now it wants to save Africa from its payment chaos.
The plan? Build a fintech universe that runs on connection. MoMo wants to go beyond remittances and build the pipes for a truly borderless Africa, where payments flow freely between countries without the usual friction or fees.
Can it do this? MTN’s MoMo already serves 283 million users and processes over $1.1 trillion in yearly transactions. In the first half of 2025, MTN disbursed $1.3 billion in microloans and has over 2 million people in its merchant network. It’s now opening its rails to other startups through MoMo OpenAPI.
But the dream isn’t all smooth transfers. Africa’s financial scene is still a patchwork, riddled with high fees, with fees averaging over 8% per transaction, and fragmented systems, with each country having its own rails, wallets, and standards. The company acknowledges that over 350 million Africans are still excluded from the financial landscape.
And then there’s the competition. Every player from OPay to Wave and Safaricom’s M-PESA wants a slice of the fintech future. But MoMo is re-engineering itself as a digital-first fintech platform, aiming to deliver intuitive, customer-centric experiences. It is betting that scale and simplicity will win.
