MTN Fintech CEO Serigne Dioum did not mince words at the company's capital markets event. "We've expanded access to credit for more people, but we also want to move further up the lending value chain," he said, signalling the telecom giant's next big move: direct lending. The plan includes seeking licences in Nigeria and other African markets that would allow MTN to deploy its own balance sheet, not just facilitate loans on behalf of third parties.
The case for pushing deeper into lending is hard to argue with. A 2025 report by the National Credit Guarantee Company found that nearly 80% of Nigerian micro, small, and medium enterprises lack access to formal credit. A Stears report puts the funding gap in that sector at $236 billion. Zoom out to the continent and the picture is just as stark: Dioum says only 4% to 5% of adults across Africa currently have access to formal credit.
Nigeria is squarely at the centre of MTN's ambitions. MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita confirmed the company is pursuing additional licences there and in other markets to broaden its financial services offering, though he stopped short of naming the specific licences being sought. "Nigeria is a key market in this regard," he said, "but the opportunity extends across several of our markets."
MTN is not arriving at this table empty-handed. In 2025, its fintech arm generated roughly $2.8 billion in revenue, processed more than $500 billion in transaction value, and handled over 23 billion transactions. The business now counts more than 70 million active MoMo users, over 2 million merchants, and an agent network of more than 1.4 million people across the continent.
The infrastructure is clearly already there. The question now is how quickly MTN can turn those numbers into a fully licensed, balance-sheet-backed lender, and what that means for the banks and fintechs already competing for Nigeria's underserved borrowers.
Originally published by TechCabal.