MTN Expands Ericsson Wallet Deal to Accelerate MoMo Fintech Growth & Inclusion

MTN Group has strengthened its fintech ambitions by expanding its long-standing mobile money partnership with Ericsson, scaling MTN's MoMo (Mobile Money) platform to offer additional financial services such as insurance, savings, and micro-loans, in addition to its existing payments infrastructure.

The deal builds on the Ericsson Wallet Platform, which currently powers MTN MoMo—used by consumers to send money, pay bills, top-up airtime, etc.—and supports merchants and agents via separate apps to accept payments. MTN also offers a MoMo API platform so developers can embed MoMo payments into third-party applications.

By end-2022, MoMo was already operating in 17 African countries, with approximately 69.1 million active users, around 1.3 million agents, and 1.5 million merchants onboard. The total transaction value processed was around US$221.3 billion.

Under its Ambition 2025 strategy, fintech is one of five pillars MTN is using to transform into a platform business. The other pillars are digital services, enterprise services, network-as-a-service (NaaS), and an API marketplace. As part of this fintech push, MTN aims by 2025 to hit 100 million active MoMo users, grow its agent network to 2 million, and expand its merchant base to 3 million. Additionally, MTN is targeting an annual MoMo transaction value of US$750 billion.

MTN's leadership has framed this expansion as more than just adding features. The goal is financial inclusion—bringing banking-adjacent services to the unbanked, enabling small businesses to access credit or insurance, and offering integrated financial tools to everyday consumers. Ericsson characterizes the partnership as a "world-leading example" of mobile financial services driving inclusion, enabling unbanked populations to manage finance, while established users access more sophisticated offerings.

Analysts note that the market for mobile financial services in emerging economies is growing rapidly. Forecasts suggest mobile money transaction value in such markets could rise significantly through 2027, driven by demand for payments-as-a-platform (PaaP), micro-finance, and embedded financial services powered by open APIs.

MTN's expanded accord with Ericsson sets up the group to compete with major fintech players in Africa and beyond. Key challenges ahead include regulatory compliance across countries, ensuring security and trust in financial services, scaling agent networks in remote areas, and maintaining service reliability. But with ambitious targets and a partner experienced in wallet platform infrastructure, MTN appears well-positioned to scale its MoMo ecosystem.