MTN is moving deeper into banking as telecoms and banks fight for Africa’s digital customer
MTN is considering becoming a bank in some of its biggest African markets, a move that could take the telecom giant much deeper into a business it has already entered through mobile money and digital lending. The company is exploring banking licences that would allow it to take deposits and, over time, lend money from its own balance sheet rather than relying entirely on partner banks. For MTN, the attraction is straightforward: millions of customers already keep and move money through its platforms, giving the company a ready-made financial customer base.
The timing matters because MTN is not making this move in isolation. Safaricom has turned M-PESA into one of Kenya’s most important financial platforms, Airtel Money is expanding into lending and other services, while banks such as Absa are moving in the opposite direction by adding mobile connectivity and building technology-led financial ecosystems. Even senior executives are moving between telecoms, banks and payment companies. The companies are increasingly competing for the same customer, with each trying to control more of the digital services people use to communicate, pay, borrow, save and transact.
MTN wants more control over lending
MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita told journalists in Johannesburg that lending is emerging as the fastest-growing part of the company’s Mobile Money business alongside payments and e-commerce. “The big growth now, which will be the growth of the future, is actually lending,” he said, according to Reuters and Developing Telecoms.
MTN currently provides loans through partnerships with banks. The company is now assessing whether banking licences in selected markets would allow it to take deposits and eventually lend from its own balance sheet. Mupita said the approach would be selective, with MTN looking at markets where it has large customer bases and significant funds held in mobile wallets. Partnership-based lending would continue even if the company begins funding some loans itself.
That distinction matters. MTN is not announcing a plan to become a bank in every country where it operates. It is testing whether the economics make sense in markets where its mobile-money operation already has sufficient scale.
A licence would give MTN access to a capability that its existing fintech operation does not fully possess: deposit-taking and, potentially, the ability to deploy its own balance sheet behind loans.
That could change the economics of the business. When a bank partner provides financing, MTN can distribute credit without carrying the entire balance-sheet exposure. Direct lending offers the possibility of capturing more of the economics of the loan, but it also brings credit losses, provisioning, capital requirements, liquidity management and tighter regulatory obligations closer to the telecom group.
This explains Mupita’s cautious approach. A mobile-money platform can process enormous transaction volumes, but lending introduces a different set of risks. Once deposits are involved, the regulatory responsibilities become greater still.
MTN already has the customer base
The case for going deeper into financial services starts with the scale of MTN’s existing ecosystem.
At the end of June, MTN served 317.7 million customers across 19 markets, while its fintech business had 70.8 million active Mobile Money users. Fintech transaction value reached $330 billion in the first half of 2026, covering 13 billion transactions, with 2.3 million active fintech merchants.
Those numbers give lending a natural place in the company’s strategy. MTN already has millions of customers using its financial platform, merchants accepting payments and agents distributing services. It also has transaction data that can support digital financial products, subject to the relevant regulatory and data-protection requirements.
The question is therefore how much more value MTN can capture from activity already happening inside its ecosystem.
Payments bring customers onto the financial platform. Lending can deepen the relationship and generate recurring revenue. Deposits would give MTN another source of funding and potentially a larger role in the financial relationship.
That is the progression behind the banking-licence discussion.
The MoMo platform is being built for more
The timing also comes as MTN continues to upgrade the technology behind MoMo.
MTN and Ericsson are continuing work on the transition of the MoMo platform, part of a wider effort to modernise the infrastructure supporting the group’s financial-services business. MTN has also partnered with Ant International to strengthen its MoMo ecosystem, beginning in Nigeria.
The infrastructure matters because lending at MTN’s scale requires much more than a mobile-money wallet. It needs systems capable of handling high transaction volumes, managing customer identities and risk, supporting merchants and partners, and delivering financial products through digital channels.
That makes the technology transition relevant to the banking discussion. MTN is strengthening the platform that already handles financial activity while considering whether it should take greater responsibility for the financial products running on top of it.
The group is also pursuing another digital-infrastructure bet through Africa Data Hub Holding, a venture developing AI-ready data centres in South Africa and Nigeria. The initial phase is expected to target around 150MW of capacity. MTN will be a minority investor, while its UAE-backed partner will provide most of the capital and technical expertise.
The distinction is worth noting. MTN is using a partnership model for capital-intensive AI infrastructure while considering greater balance-sheet exposure for lending. The two businesses are different, but both are part of a strategy to capture more value from the digital economy surrounding its telecommunications networks.
Safaricom shows where telecom-led finance can go
Kenya offers the clearest African example of how far a telecom-owned financial platform can develop.
Safaricom has built M-PESA beyond basic money transfers into a broader ecosystem covering payments, credit, savings, investments, merchant services and other digital financial products. The platform has become deeply embedded in everyday commerce, giving Safaricom a financial relationship with customers that extends well beyond mobile connectivity.
Fuliza provides a useful example of the lending opportunity. Customers can access short-term credit within the M-PESA environment, putting borrowing alongside the payments they already make. The model demonstrates why telecom operators are interested in lending: the customer relationship and payment infrastructure are already in place.
MTN’s opportunity is similar, although the markets are very different.
The group has greater geographic scale, but it does not have the same level of dominance in every market that M-PESA enjoys in Kenya. Customer behaviour, competition, regulation and the strength of incumbent banks vary widely across Africa.
That is why Mupita’s emphasis on selecting markets with large customer bases and substantial wallet balances is important. MTN can take the model where its existing financial ecosystem is strong enough to support it rather than applying one banking strategy across all its operations.
Airtel is chasing the same financial customer
MTN also faces a direct competitor in Airtel Africa.
Airtel Money has grown into a significant financial-services business, with tens of millions of customers and hundreds of billions of dollars in annual transaction value. Its operations include payments, merchant services and partnerships with financial institutions, while the group continues to develop its lending proposition.
The competitive race is therefore no longer confined to mobile-money transfers. MTN and Airtel are both trying to increase the amount of financial activity that takes place inside their ecosystems.
Airtel Money’s former Kenya boss Anne Kinuthia-Otieno’s move to Visa also illustrates how valuable this experience has become beyond telecoms. After leading Airtel Money Kenya, she joined Visa as Vice President and Head of East Africa, taking experience in mobile money, merchant networks, partnerships and digital financial services into a global payments company.
The talent movement matters because it shows that the expertise developed inside telecom-led financial platforms is now useful across the wider financial system.
Banks are moving in the opposite direction
The more interesting part of the story is what banks are doing at the same time.
In South Africa, Absa is preparing to launch a mobile virtual network operator, following banks including FNB, Standard Bank and Nedbank into mobile services. Bank-backed MVNOs have already attracted millions of customers in the country, giving lenders another channel through which to reach customers and package services.
The logic is almost the reverse of MTN’s.
MTN already has the network, customer relationship and mobile wallet. It wants greater control over the financial relationship.
A bank already has deposits, credit products and regulated financial infrastructure. By offering mobile connectivity, it gains another channel through which it can interact with customers and build a broader digital ecosystem.
That convergence is becoming harder to ignore because consumers increasingly use the same smartphone to buy data, send money, pay merchants, borrow, save, invest and shop.
The institution behind each service remains important to regulators and investors, but the customer experiences much of this activity through a digital interface.
The executives are crossing the industry divide
The movement of senior executives between these companies provides another way to see the convergence.
Former M-PESA Africa CEO Sitoyo Lopokoiyit moved to Absa, where he is leading its Personal and Private Banking business. He took experience from one of Africa’s largest mobile-money platforms into a major banking group, where digital engagement, deposits, lending, investments and other financial products are central to the business.
Michael Mutiga provides another example. After joining Safaricom following more than two decades in banking and corporate finance, including senior roles at Barclays and Citibank, he is moving to Stanbic Bank Kenya as chief executive.
His career crosses the same boundary that the companies themselves are now trying to bridge: conventional banking on one side and telecom-led digital finance on the other.
Airtel Money Kenya’s former head Anne Kinuthia-Otieno has taken another route, moving to Visa after overseeing the expansion of Airtel Money’s merchant and agent ecosystem and financial partnerships.
The movement extends beyond Kenya. Former Airtel Africa CEO Segun Ogunsanya is joining Vodacom’s board as an independent non-executive director, bringing experience spanning telecommunications, banking, finance and consumer goods. Vodacom executives have also joined Safaricom’s board, creating another channel through which knowledge is moving between major African telecom operators.
These executives understand capabilities that are valuable across all three industries: digital customer acquisition, payments, lending, merchant ecosystems, partnerships, regulation, technology platforms and large-scale distribution.
MTN’s banking bet is bigger than a licence
This is why MTN’s exploration of banking licences deserves attention beyond the question of whether a telecom operator can obtain a banking licence.
MTN is considering whether its existing mobile-money ecosystem is strong enough in selected markets to justify taking deposits and lending from its own balance sheet. If it proceeds, the company would gain greater control over the economics of credit while taking on substantially more financial and regulatory responsibility.
Banks are moving toward the technology and connectivity layer at the same time. Absa’s MVNO plans are one example, while the recruitment of executives from mobile-money platforms into banking shows that banks also want the expertise developed inside telecom-led financial ecosystems.
Safaricom sits somewhere between these models. Its M-PESA experience demonstrates how a telecom company can turn mobile money into a broader financial platform, while its recruitment of banking executives shows why conventional financial expertise remains important to that transformation.
Airtel is pursuing a similar path from another starting point, and payment companies such as Visa are drawing on executives who have built mobile-money businesses at scale.
The result is a market where the boundaries between telecoms, banks, fintechs and payment companies are becoming less useful for understanding where competition will come from. The same customer is at the centre of all four businesses, and each wants a larger share of the digital relationship.
For MTN, the next step could be the balance sheet itself. A banking licence would allow the telecom group to move deeper into the financial system it has already helped build, while banks and payment companies continue moving toward the digital platforms where those customers spend their time.
The outcome will depend on regulation, credit performance, capital requirements and whether customers actually want to consolidate more financial services inside telecom platforms. But MTN’s decision to investigate deposit-taking and balance-sheet lending shows that the competition over Africa’s digital customer is moving well beyond calls, data and mobile-money transfers.
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