MTN Nigeria is as soon as once more proving why it stays the undisputed money machine of Company Nigeria.
The telecom large’s newest outcomes present N3.7 trillion in income and N1.1 trillion in pre-tax revenue for the third quarter, marking a full restoration from the international change losses that just about erased its stability sheet simply seven quarters in the past.
With dividend funds restored, MTN has re-entered the league of constant shareholder performers.
As anticipated, voice and information stay the heavy lifters. Information income surged 36% year-on-year as lively customers hit 51.1 million, whereas complete subscribers climbed to 85.4 million. Collectively, voice and information contributed roughly N3.2 trillion to the highest line. But amid these acquainted successes, one other enterprise quietly stole the highlight, FinTech.
MTN’s FinTech division, which homes Yello Digital Monetary Companies and MoMo Fee Service Bank, has was a severe progress engine.
Within the first 9 months of 2025, it generated N131.6 billion in income, up a shocking 72.5% from the identical interval final yr.
That’s about N43 billion 1 / 4 or N15 billion month-to-month. For perspective, some banks don’t make that a lot. If MTN’s FinTech arm had been a standalone startup, it might already be valued at unicorn standing.
This success will not be unintentional. MTN has methodically leveraged its large base of 85.4 million cellular subscribers, 55 million of whom are lively information customers, to construct probably the most intensive digital monetary ecosystems in Nigeria.
The corporate’s technique has centered on increasing lively wallets, rising transaction volumes, and introducing superior monetary providers that encourage repeat use. Energetic wallets climbed to 2.9 million as of September 2025, up 1.6% since December 2024, signaling a gradual deepening of customer engagement.
MTN’s management frames its FinTech push as greater than only a progress story; it’s an inclusion story. The corporate ceaselessly reiterates its dedication to monetary inclusion, a phrase that’s straightforward to overuse however troublesome to ship on at scale. But, with a attain that extends to nearly each nook of the nation, MTN is uniquely positioned to democratize entry to monetary providers. Its MoMo brokers are actually ubiquitous in each city markets and rural communities, offering an accessible bridge between money and digital transactions.
In its newest technique recalibration, MTN has emphasised driving the “high quality and stickiness” of its pockets base, increasing adoption of the MoMo app, and scaling its digital ecosystem. The ambition is obvious: convert informal customers into recurring ones and be certain that MoMo turns into not simply one other fee app, however a way of life utility. With options spanning cellular wallets, funds, microloans, cellular commerce, and micro-insurance, all accessible by way of app or USSD, MTN’s FinTech platform is steadily evolving into an all-in-one monetary companion.
The corporate’s foresight in securing key licenses years in the past is now paying off. Its Tremendous-Agent licence, for example, permits MTN to increase monetary providers by way of a quickly rising agent community, whereas its Fee Service Bank licence offers it the regulatory latitude to compete straight with conventional banks. Layered on prime of this infrastructure are modern way of life choices that leverage MTN’s current methods to offer different merchandise alongside digital providers.
When MTN first started monitoring its FinTech revenues in 2015, the enterprise generated a modest N8.8 billion. Quick ahead a decade, and that determine has multiplied greater than tenfold. The compound annual progress charge is sufficient to make even essentially the most stoic CFO increase an eyebrow. In the present day, with N131.6 billion already booked this yr, MTN’s FinTech division has remodeled from a facet hustle right into a pillar of its company empire.
The timing couldn’t be extra fortuitous. Nigeria’s monetary panorama is being rewired by regulation and innovation alike. New frameworks from our bodies like NITDA, the Nationwide Id Administration Fee, and the Securities and Alternate Fee are paving the best way for digital lending, open banking, and shopper credit score enlargement.
The items are falling into place for a formalized digital credit score market, and MTN, with its information, attain, and customer intimacy, is ideally positioned to dominate it.
In contrast to conventional banks, which nonetheless grapple with excessive customer acquisition prices and legacy methods, MTN already has the infrastructure and insights wanted to increase credit score effectively.
It could leverage AI to study its customers’ behaviors, spending patterns, and fee histories, a treasure trove for algorithmic lending. With shopper lending touted as Nigeria’s subsequent billion-dollar alternative, the corporate’s FinTech arm might simply grow to be the engine that powers the following section of its progress.
It will be unwise to wager towards MTN’s FinTech juggernaut crossing the N200 billion annual income mark by 2026.
Extra importantly, it is probably not lengthy earlier than this division is spun off and listed as a standalone enterprise, very like Safaricom’s M-Pesa ambitions in Kenya. An inventory might unlock even better worth for shareholders and cement MTN’s position as each a telecom and monetary powerhouse.
For a corporation as soon as outlined by name minutes and megabytes, that’s fairly a pivot and a worthwhile one at that.