MTN eyes banking licences for lending
MTN, Africa's largest telecom operator, is weighing banking licences in select markets to move beyond bank partnerships and lend directly to customers. CEO Ralph Mupita told Reuters on 25 August that credit would be a key source of future growth.
- MTN currently offers loans mainly through partnerships with banks, not from its own balance sheet.
- The group is assessing markets with large Mobile Money customer bases and high transaction volumes.
- Wave Bank Africa launched in Côte d'Ivoire in 2025 with about 33 million dollars (CFA20 billion) in capital and has a banking licence application under review.
- Flutterwave secured a microfinance banking licence in Nigeria in 2026 and plans to expand banking operations into East Africa.
Africa's telecom operators already dominate payments through mobile money platforms used by millions of customers with little formal banking history. A banking licence would let MTN accept deposits and put its own capital behind lending, rather than relying solely on bank partners for credit products. This matters for African businesses because access to formal credit remains limited for many small enterprises and individual customers, and telecom operators hold transaction data that can support lending decisions where traditional credit records are thin. If MTN succeeds, it could reshape competition across the continent's financial sector, pitting telecoms directly against banks and fintechs for deposits and loans rather than just payment fees.
The bigger picture
The move signals a broader convergence between telecoms, fintechs and banks across Africa, with Safaricom's M-Pesa, Orange Bank Africa and AXIAN's Comoros licence already blurring those lines. MTN's plan would add its scale, reaching customers across multiple African markets, to a race to convert mobile wallets into full financial services businesses. Success could shift revenue models away from connectivity fees toward savings and credit income, changing how banks and telecoms compete for the same customers over the next decade.
Source: Ghanamma