MTN Nigeria’s fintech arm made ₦131.62 billion ($91.64 million) in the first nine months of 2025, but mostly on the back of airtime lending (Xtratime). The why is understandable. MTN has a subscriber base of 89.64 million, and many depend on borrowed airtime for connectivity.
Core fintech revenue (excluding Xtratime) stood at ₦6.8 billion ($4.73 million), a 142.86% jump from ₦2.8 billion ($1.95 million) in the previous year, driven by an increase in interest income and usage of advanced services, a slide presentation during MTN’s investors call on October 31, 2025, revealed.
The telco knows it can’t rely on airtime lending forever, especially as the country’s two mobile money giants, OPay and PalmPay, continue to dominate mobile payments. To compete, MTN is betting on advanced services, value-chain digitisation, and high-value customers to shift from quick wins to long-term fintech growth.
“We still see substantial opportunities for growth and diversification,” Karl Toriola, CEO of MTN Nigeria, said on the call. “With disciplined execution, we are accelerating advanced services, expanding our ecosystem, and deepening customer engagement.
The race to catch up
Mobile money is one of Nigeria’s fastest-growing financial services segments. In Q1 2025, transactions reached ₦20.71 trillion ($14.42 billion), according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
This sector is dominated by OPay, which reported 10 million daily active users and 100 million daily transactions in 2024, and PalmPay, which processes 15 million daily.
Despite their larger subscriber bases, telco-backed payment service banks—the Central Bank of Nigeria’s mobile money solution for telcos—MTN’s MoMo, Airtel’s SmartCash, 9mobile’s 9PSB, Globacom’s Money Master, and Hope PSB from Unified Payments have struggled to scale.
On Airtel Africa’s fiscal Q1 2026 earnings call in July 2025, CEO Sunil Taldar attributed this to the maturity of Nigeria’s fintech sector, saying the market is well-developed “compared to many other markets.”
Shifting models
To adapt to this, telcos are changing their fintech operating models. Airtel is leaning on its agent networks and new digital capabilities, betting that its customer base will help it capture a share of Nigeria’s mobile money market.
MTN is focusing on what it terms ‘advanced services’ and high-value customers, while expanding its physical presence. Its active agent network grew by 73.6% and merchant network by 42.6% between December 2024 and September 2025, part of what it calls a “deliberate focus on optimising distribution quality and building a more sustainable fintech ecosystem for long-term growth.”
Active MoMo wallets are up 1.6% to 2.9 million, and customer deposits jumped 146.43% year-on-year to ₦6.9 billion ($4.80 million).
Inside MTN’s fintech playbook
According to Phrase Lubega, CEO of MoMo PSB, MTN is digitising value chains and solving real-world payment challenges.
“We see continuous usage of customers coming to make payments through those value chains, and that has helped drive the momentum that we expect,” he said on MTN’s investors call.
On the agent side, the company is leveraging already existing networks rather than chasing new numbers.
On the distribution side, the company is leveraging existing agent networks to drive growth. “This has enabled us to actually drive some level of growth without necessarily going so aggressively on distribution acquisition,” he explained.
The company is banking on advanced services to drive higher-value and repeat transactions.
“As we onboard or deliver additional advanced services, more high-value customers actually come in to engage and interact with those services, thereby driving the additional momentum and increasing the flow that we are seeing,” Lubega added.
The company believes that its strategy calibration is beginning to pay off.
“Our fintech strategy is focused on unlocking significant long-term value and advancing financial inclusion, and on the quality of our wallets and customers that we acquire,” Karl Toriola said on the call. “We are focused on building a scalable, sustainable fintech platform that delivers attractive returns and supports our broader growth ambitions.”
Long road ahead
When the CBN introduced Payment Service Banks (PSBs) licences in 2018, it expected telcos to replicate M-Pesa’s success in Kenya. But that hasn’t happened.
Airtel Nigeria’s mobile money business processed only $1.5 billion between April and September 2025, just 1.7% of Airtel Africa’s $88.8 billion in total mobile money transactions. Revenue from Nigeria contributed a mere $4 million, or 0.64%, of Airtel Africa’s $623 million fintech earnings, despite the country’s size.
Yet, Airtel’s Taldar believes PSBs will eventually get their day in the sun.
“Nigeria is taking its time, but given the strength of this market, the size of the opportunity in this market, it is only a matter of time,” he said on the company’s earnings call in July 2025.
GSMA, the global industry body for telcos, shares that view, arguing in this report that telcos’ scale, technology, and capital base will eventually help them catch up.
Note: exchange rate used: ₦1,436.34/$
