MTN already helps more than one million people access credit every day through its platforms. Now the continent's largest telecom operator wants to go further, lending directly from its own balance sheet. The company announced on Wednesday that it plans to seek additional fintech licences across key African markets, including Nigeria, that would give it that ability.
The case MTN is making rests on a striking number: only 4 to 5 percent of adults across Africa currently have access to formal credit. In Nigeria specifically, nearly 80 percent of micro, small, and medium enterprises cannot get a loan from a traditional bank, and the sector carries a $236 billion funding gap. MTN has spent years quietly building everything a lending business needs, millions of users, transaction histories, merchant networks, and mobile wallets. The licences would let it put all of that to work.
It is a natural next move for a company that has already made payments a core part of its identity. The question now is how quickly regulators in Nigeria and other key markets will open the door, and whether traditional banks are ready for that kind of competition from a telco.
Originally published by TechCabal.