For Africa’s largest telecoms operator, MTN Group, the future is looking less like phone calls and more like financial services. The Johannesburg-based giant just dropped its half-year results for 2025, and while the overall numbers are strong, the real story is the roaring success of its fintech division, which outpaced all other segments.
The group’s service revenue climbed a healthy 23.2% year-on-year to reach R105.1bn ($5.8bn). This growth was largely propelled by two key areas: data revenue, which grew by 36.5%, and fintech revenue, which surged by an impressive 37.3%.
This performance underscores a strategic shift that has been years in the making, positioning MTN not just as a telco, but as one of the most dominant fintech players on the continent.
The Bottom Line
The financial results for the first six months of 2025 paint a picture of a company firing on all cylinders, thanks to improved macroeconomic conditions in key markets like Nigeria.
- Group Service Revenue: R105.1bn ($5.8bn), up 23.2%
- Fintech Revenue Growth: 37.3%
- Data Revenue Growth: 36.5%
- EBITDA Margin: Expanded to 42.7%
- Total Subscribers: 297.7m, up 4.7%
The company’s profitability saw a significant turnaround, with headline earnings per share (HEPS) hitting 645 cents, a stark recovery from a 256-cent loss in the same period last year.
“The group reported a pleasing set of results, driven by strong commercial execution, disciplined capital allocation and improved macro-economic conditions,” said Ralph Mupita, MTN Group President and CEO. He highlighted that greater stability in the Nigerian naira and a strengthening Ghanaian cedi helped bolster the numbers.
MoMo Hits its Stride
The driving force behind the fintech boom is MTN’s Mobile Money (MoMo) platform. While its user growth was modest at 1.7% to reach 63.2m monthly active users, the activity on the platform skyrocketed. Transaction volumes climbed 14.5% to 11.1bn in the first half of the year.
Crucially, MTN is successfully moving users beyond simple peer-to-peer transfers into more lucrative “advanced” services. Revenue from offerings like lending, insurance, and merchant payments grew by 42%, now making up a third (33.4%) of total MoMo revenue.
This shows the platform is maturing into a full-fledged financial super-app. In the first half of 2024 alone, MoMo processed $1.9bn in international remittances and saw its merchant payment volume grow to $9bn.
The Strategic Spinoff
These stellar fintech results come at a pivotal moment for MTN. The company is in the advanced stages of carving out its financial services operations into a separate entity, a move designed to unlock value and attract external investment.
The fintech arm has been valued at approximately $5.2bn, and payments giant Mastercard is already lined up to take a minority stake, a deal first announced in 2023.
The separation is progressing at different speeds across MTN’s key markets, largely due to varying regulatory landscapes:
- Ghana: Plans are underway to merge its MobileMoney unit into a new fintech company (New FinCo) that will eventually list on the Ghana Stock Exchange, in line with local ownership laws.
- Uganda: MTN has similarly approved the spinning off its MoMo business into a new standalone entity to comply with the country’s National Payment Systems Act.
- Nigeria: As MTN’s largest market, progress in Nigeria is slower. Mupita confirmed there are “more regulatory processes to work through,” but the goal remains the same.
The strategy is clear: create independent, regulated fintech companies in major markets to increase transparency, sharpen focus, and make it easier for investors like Mastercard to come on board.
What’s Next?
While fintech is the star performer, MTN’s core connectivity business remains essential. The company invested R20.8bn ($1.15bn) in its network infrastructure in the first half of the year to support the 29.1% increase in data traffic.
However, the contrast between the booming fintech division and more traditional segments is becoming clearer. In South Africa, for instance, the company faced “competitive pressures” and reported service revenue growth of just 2.3%.
This divergence highlights why the fintech strategy is so critical. As MTN navigates competitive telecoms markets and macroeconomic volatility, its MoMo platform provides a resilient and high-growth alternative. It faces stiff competition from Vodacom’s M-Pesa and a growing number of agile local startups, but MTN’s scale is a formidable advantage.
“Fintech remains central to our growth thesis,” Mupita stated. With billions in transactions and deepening investor interest, MTN’s fintech arm is no longer a promising side-hustle. It’s rapidly becoming the main event.