For a country where cash remains a major part of everyday spending, South Africa could become one of MTN’s biggest tests for MoMo.
MTN’s mobile-money and digital financial services platform is looking to expand beyond the markets where mobile money has traditionally thrived. The company now sees an opportunity to use South Africa’s changing payments infrastructure to bring more consumers and businesses into digital finance.
MTN wants MoMo to evolve from a mobile wallet into a broader financial platform, connecting consumers and merchants to payments, credit, remittances and other digital services across its African markets.
South Africa presents a different challenge from many of those markets. The country has a mature banking system and high financial inclusion, meaning MoMo cannot simply compete with banks by offering basic money transfers.
Instead, MTN is betting on the country’s changing payments infrastructure, new regulatory opportunities and the millions of consumers and small businesses that still depend heavily on cash.
“The national payments infrastructure is moving very fast. This is infrastructure that we want to leverage to penetrate the market,” said Serigne Dioum, MTN Group’s fintech chief executive, at the company’s Fintech Summit in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
The strategy includes taking advantage of new payment infrastructure, applying for additional licences as they become available and expanding into services such as lending. MTN also sees an opportunity among smaller merchants that have historically had limited access to formal financial services.
South Africa is just one part of a much bigger plan.
MoMo now has more than 70 million monthly active users across 14 markets, according to MTN, and processed more than 13 billion transactions worth over $330 billion in the first half of 2026.
Its network includes more than 2.3 million merchants and one million agents. International remittances also exceeded $3 billion during the period.
“We started by giving customers access to financial services. Now we want to move from access to active participation,” Dioum said.
That means turning MoMo wallets into tools customers use regularly to pay merchants, access loans, save, send money across borders and purchase other services.
MTN is already testing what that could look like in markets such as Rwanda and Uganda, where MoMo users can send money across borders through an experience designed to feel similar to a domestic transfer.
The company is also developing an open application programming interface, or API, that allows banks, utilities, merchants and other businesses to connect their services to the MoMo ecosystem.
MTN sees this broader network as important to building a more connected African digital economy.
“Africa’s digital economy will increasingly depend on our ability to connect markets, enable cross-border payments, support regional trade and allow people and businesses to participate seamlessly across borders,” said Mcebisi Jonas, MTN Group chairman.
But expanding into lending, remittances and merchant payments also brings greater regulatory responsibilities.
As MoMo takes on more financial services, MTN will have to meet stricter requirements around consumer protection, safeguarding customer funds, data security and the resilience of its systems.
South Africa’s regulators are already preparing for a payments industry where traditional banks and fintech companies compete more directly.
Lesetja Kganyago, governor of the South African Reserve Bank, said the country needs to modernise its payments system as technology changes how people and businesses move money.
“Other countries are ahead of us, and we need to catch up,” Kganyago said.
The Reserve Bank is moving towards an activity-based regulatory approach, meaning companies providing the same type of payment service, whether they are banks or fintechs, would face broadly similar regulatory expectations.
For MTN, that could create more room to compete in payments while still requiring companies to meet standards around consumer protection, safeguarding funds and operational resilience.
The opportunity is significant, but so is the challenge. MoMo’s success in less-banked African markets does not automatically guarantee the same result in South Africa, where consumers already have access to established banks and digital payment options.
MTN’s bet is that cash dependence, underserved merchants and a rapidly changing payments system can create enough room for MoMo to build a new role in the market.
“The pace of innovation creates tremendous opportunities for Africa, but sustainable progress depends on ensuring that trust keeps pace,” said Nikiwe Tanga, MTN Group Fintech’s chief legal officer.
For MoMo, South Africa may ultimately determine whether the platform can move beyond its traditional mobile-money roots and become something much bigger: a digital financial network connecting consumers, merchants and financial services across the continent.