MTN Nigeria’s fintech arm made ₦131.62 billion ($91.64 million) within the first 9 months of 2025, however totally on the again of airtime lending (Xtratime). The why is comprehensible. MTN has a subscriber base of 89.64 million, and plenty of rely upon borrowed airtime for connectivity.
Core fintech income (excluding Xtratime) stood at ₦6.8 billion ($4.73 million), a 142.86% soar from ₦2.8 billion ($1.95 million) within the earlier yr, pushed by a rise in curiosity revenue and utilization of superior providers, a slide presentation throughout MTN’s traders name on October 31, 2025, revealed.
The telco is aware of it will probably’t depend on airtime lending endlessly, particularly because the nation’s two cellular cash giants, OPay and PalmPay, proceed to dominate cellular funds. To compete, MTN is betting on superior providers, value-chain digitisation, and high-value prospects to shift from fast wins to long-term fintech progress.
“We nonetheless see substantial alternatives for progress and diversification,” Karl Toriola, CEO of MTN Nigeria, stated on the decision. “With disciplined execution, we’re accelerating superior providers, increasing our ecosystem, and deepening buyer engagement.
The race to catch up
Cellular cash is one in every of Nigeria’s fastest-growing monetary providers segments. In Q1 2025, transactions reached ₦20.71 trillion ($14.42 billion), in line with the Nigeria Inter-Financial institution Settlement System (NIBSS).
This sector is dominated by OPay, which reported 10 million day by day lively customers and 100 million day by day transactions in 2024, and PalmPay, which processes 15 million day by day.
Regardless of their bigger subscriber bases, telco-backed cost service banks—the Central Financial institution of Nigeria’s cellular cash resolution for telcos—MTN’s MoMo, Airtel’s SmartCash, 9mobile’s 9PSB, Globacom’s Cash Grasp, and Hope PSB from Unified Funds have struggled to scale.
On Airtel Africa’s fiscal Q1 2026 earnings name in July 2025, CEO Sunil Taldar attributed this to the maturity of Nigeria’s fintech sector, saying the market is well-developed “in comparison with many different markets.”
Shifting fashions
To adapt to this, telcos are altering their fintech working fashions. Airtel is leaning on its agent networks and new digital capabilities, betting that its buyer base will assist it seize a share of Nigeria’s cellular cash market.
MTN is specializing in what it phrases ‘superior providers’ and high-value prospects, whereas increasing its bodily presence. Its lively agent community grew by 73.6% and service provider community by 42.6% between December 2024 and September 2025, a part of what it calls a “deliberate concentrate on optimising distribution high quality and constructing a extra sustainable fintech ecosystem for long-term progress.”
Energetic MoMo wallets are up 1.6% to 2.9 million, and buyer deposits jumped 146.43% year-on-year to ₦6.9 billion ($4.80 million).
Inside MTN’s fintech playbook
In line with Phrase Lubega, CEO of MoMo PSB, MTN is digitising worth chains and fixing real-world cost challenges.
“We see steady utilization of consumers coming to make funds by these worth chains, and that has helped drive the momentum that we count on,” he stated on MTN’s traders name.
On the agent facet, the corporate is leveraging already present networks fairly than chasing new numbers.
On the distribution facet, the corporate is leveraging present agent networks to drive progress. “This has enabled us to really drive some degree of progress with out essentially going so aggressively on distribution acquisition,” he defined.
The corporate is banking on superior providers to drive higher-value and repeat transactions.
“As we onboard or ship extra superior providers, extra high-value prospects truly are available in to interact and work together with these providers, thereby driving the extra momentum and rising the move that we’re seeing,” Lubega added.
The corporate believes that its technique calibration is starting to repay.
“Our fintech technique is concentrated on unlocking vital long-term worth and advancing monetary inclusion, and on the standard of our wallets and prospects that we purchase,” Karl Toriola stated on the decision. “We’re targeted on constructing a scalable, sustainable fintech platform that delivers engaging returns and helps our broader progress ambitions.”
Lengthy street forward
When the CBN launched Cost Service Banks (PSBs) licences in 2018, it anticipated telcos to copy M-Pesa’s success in Kenya. However that hasn’t occurred.
Airtel Nigeria’s cellular cash enterprise processed solely $1.5 billion between April and September 2025, simply 1.7% of Airtel Africa’s $88.8 billion in complete cellular cash transactions. Income from Nigeria contributed a mere $4 million, or 0.64%, of Airtel Africa’s $623 million fintech earnings, regardless of the nation’s dimension.
But, Airtel’s Taldar believes PSBs will finally get their day within the solar.
“Nigeria is taking its time, however given the power of this market, the scale of the chance on this market, it is just a matter of time,” he stated on the corporate’s earnings name in July 2025.
GSMA, the worldwide trade physique for telcos, shares that view, arguing on this report that telcos’ scale, expertise, and capital base will finally assist them catch up.
Word: alternate fee used: ₦1,436.34/$
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