At CNN’s Global Perspectives event, MTN Group Fintech set out how its mobile platform is unlocking financial inclusion in Africa.
Africa runs on cash. Over 65% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa are unbanked or underbanked, meaning more than 90% of payments are made with physical currency. These statistics reveal both a challenge, and an opportunity, and became a hot topic at CNN’s inaugural Global Perspectives Summit in London, UK.
Regional leaders stressed that part of the solution rests on fintech’s ability to broaden financial inclusion and enable meaningful participation in the digital economy. In Africa, where cell phones outnumber bank accounts, telecom networks have become the backbone of financial access. MTN Group, the continent’s largest operator, serving over 300 million people, now operates in both telecom and fintech, extending its reach from connectivity into digital payments through its mobile money service, MoMo.
“We started with connectivity; today we’re about digital,” said Ebenezer Asante, Senior Vice President at MTN Group. “Moving beyond access, to participation and people using digital tools to work, trade, learn, and live more dignified lives.”
Launched in 2007, MoMo began as a platform for transfers and airtime purchases. It now offers a full financial suite including bill payments, merchant acceptance, savings, nano-loans, and virtual cards. Collaborations with partners such as Mastercard have widened its footprint, extending cross-border usage for MoMo users traveling or working internationally.
MTN Group Fintech CEO Serigne Dioum believes MoMo’s unique strength lies in its symbiotic relationship with the group’s cellular network. “We leverage the phone to include people financially, so that you have an account where you can transfer money, pay bills or merchants,” he explains.
Though MoMo, a platform business with 65 million customers across 15 countries, is a successful vehicle to reach the approximately 350 million people unbanked in Africa, under the hood, MTN Group Fintech is also tackling the systemic barriers to financial inclusion at scale.
“Data is expensive because inputs are expensive,” Asante explained. “So, we’re investing in 122,000km of fiber, submarine and terrestrial, to bring costs down for the user.” Inclusion also hinges on affordability, so MTN Group Fintech is pushing for more African-made devices and services that will make including low-income individuals easier.
Regulation is the final piece of the puzzle and MTN Group Fintech has, for many years, been pushing for central banks to create dedicated regulatory frameworks for mobile money. There’s been some success here, but the work continues, with Dioum still calling for more banks to unlock digital lending at scale.
Platforms like MoMo are helping to drive jobs and productivity. MoMo’s API platform, which allows different software applications to communicate with each other, has inducted around 1.2 million people into the formal economy. Transaction values have surged (to around $20.3 billion), as have digital loan disbursements (about $1.7 billion), a sure sign of deeper engagement with financial services.
For small businesses, this connective tissue is the bridge to move from analogue to digital. In Eswatini, community cornerstones like Baker’s Corner are already feeling the benefits. “We were among the first to start using MoMo Pay back in 2018 and it’s changed everything,” says manager Xolile Shabangu. “People can order cakes and pay deposits straight from their phones.”
The bakery now accepts payments instantly at markets and cash-free events, reducing risk and expanding its customer base. “It’s fast, simple, and empowering,” Shabangu adds. “For women in business, it means money moves quickly and safely, wherever our customers are.”
For SMEs across Africa, this is what financial inclusion looks like in practice. Roaming and real-time payments are advancing, the East African “one network area” is live, with West Africa piloting, and interoperable payment systems are uniting key markets.
MTN Group Fintech understands that no single player can close the gap. “We will not cover the next billion without partnerships,” Asante says, calling for “smart regulation” that leaves room for fintechs to grow. But MTN Group Fintech’s three ambitions are clear: reach more people and businesses with life-enhancing fintech, deepen digital payment use, and bring down remittance costs at scale. Get those right and the next time growth figures are quoted, the most important metric won’t be how many are connected, but how many are participating.
Find out more about MTN Group Fintech’s mobile platform here.
