The latest data released today by MTN shows the value of MTN MoMo (mobile money) transactions was $61,2 billion (R926 billion) in the first half of 2020.
Africa’s largest mobile phone group said in the first half of 2020 processed 11 752 MoMo transactions a minute across its markets, up 28% from 9 193 transactions a minute in 2019.
The group said it remains committed to leveraging its technology to enable a cashless Africa.
By the end of September 2020, nearly 42 million people were regularly transacting on MTN MoMo across 16 markets. This compares to 38 million active users at the end of the first half of 2020, and 35 million at the end of 2019 – ten years after MTN launched MoMo.
Initially designed to facilitate the transfer of cash between mobile users, MTN’s MoMo offering is now much broader. The group works with numerous partners to offer services including loans, insurance, remittances and MoMo Pay, enabling customers to store money in their mobile wallets with which they can then pay for goods or services at registered merchants.
Mobile money services have grown faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world. In 2020, the trend has quickened, and the value of transactions has increased, partly supported by MTN’s reduction in MoMo transaction fees in many operations to assist customers battling the impacts of the pandemic.
In November 2019, MTN launched MTN Homeland, a mobile remittance application to facilitate money and airtime transfers from Europe to Africa and parts of the Middle East.”
The MTN Homeland service is powered by Johannesburg–based FinTech startup MFS Africa, the largest digital payments hub on the continent. It connects over 180 million mobile wallets on the continent. Through a single API, MFS Africa connects mobile wallet systems, banks, money transfer operators, and merchants to enable real-time, cross-border and cross-network transactions.
With MTN Homeland, remittances can be made from Europe to Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Rwanda and Uganda, while airtime can be sent to Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia.
Through MTN Homeland, MTN is ramping up its efforts to enhance access to digital and financial services for its customers.