MTN Nigeria is shifting its fintech strategy towards rural outreach following a significant drop in active wallets on its MoMo Payment Service Bank (PSB) platform. The number of active MoMo wallets fell to 2.1 million in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting a 55.6% decline compared with the 4.8 million reported in Q1 2024, and a 25% drop from the 2.8 million recorded in the final quarter of 2024.
In its unaudited Q1 2025 financial results, the telecoms giant attributed the fall in wallet activity to a deliberate focus on enhancing the quality of its fintech ecosystem. “This enabled us to onboard more high-value customers and improve float levels, thereby enhancing the overall health and sustainability of the ecosystem,” the company stated.
MTN Nigeria CEO, Karl Toriola, noted that the firm remains committed to its broader ambition of advancing financial inclusion. As part of this goal, MTN is preparing to roll out a targeted rural expansion strategy to bring digital financial services to previously underserved communities.
“We are now prepared to invest and intensify qualitative field acquisition efforts, particularly in rural and underserved areas, in line with our financial inclusion objectives. These efforts are aligned with our strategic objective to build a more robust, inclusive, and scalable digital financial ecosystem,” Toriola said.
Despite the dip in wallet activity, MTN reported strong growth across other aspects of its fintech operations. The number of agents on the MoMo network rose by 47.7%, while the merchant base grew by 23.6% compared to figures from December 2024.
Fintech revenue climbed 57.9% year-on-year, rising from ₦22.8 billion in Q1 2024 to ₦36 billion in Q1 2025. The company credited this surge largely to its airtime lending product, Xtratime, alongside improved float income and a strategic push to acquire higher-value users.
MTN also noted that enhancements made to its customer acquisition framework—initiated in Q3 2024—had helped the company optimise incentives, strengthen customer engagement, and bolster performance across sales and distribution networks.
Meanwhile, MTN’s digital services segment delivered impressive revenue growth of 92.1%, driven by growing appetite for rich media content and refinements to the user experience. Although the number of monthly active users of rich media services (excluding ayoba) dropped by 19.4% to 7.9 million since December 2024 due to platform optimisation efforts, the company reported an improvement in overall user engagement.
Earlier reporting by Nairametrics revealed that MTN Nigeria generated ₦1 trillion in revenue during Q1 2025, benefiting from a tariff hike introduced in mid-February. This marks a 40.5% year-on-year increase from the ₦752.9 billion posted in Q1 2024.
The company also returned to profitability during the quarter, registering a profit after tax of ₦133.7 billion. This is a major turnaround from the ₦392.7 billion loss it recorded during the same period last year.