Telecoms giant MTN eyes banking licences as it pushes deeper into lending

Africa’s largest telecoms operator MTN Group is exploring banking licences in select markets as the company looks to expand lending from its own balance sheet, CEO Ralph Mupita said on Tuesday.

MTN ‌is stepping up its push into fintech services to drive growth beyond traditional telecommunications revenue, with lending emerging as one of the fastest-growing segments within its mobile money business.

“We’re seeing good growth on advanced services, which are our future-proof services,” Mupita told journalists, referring to offerings such as payments, e-commerce and ⁠lending.

“The big growth now, which will be the growth of the future, is actually lending.”
MTN currently provides loans through partnerships with banks.

“We’re beginning to explore, where it makes sense and where there are large customer bases (and) significant floats in wallets, whether it may make sense to have some sort of banking licence that enables us to take deposits,” Mupita said.

“As such, we will then be lending over time off our own balance sheet. But also, it doesn’t mean we won’t do ‌any ⁠partnership lending.”

He said the approach would be selective rather than implemented across all of MTN’s operations, and that any move to balance-sheet lending would be gradual given the risks involved.

MTN is also betting on digital infrastructure growth.

The company plans to develop AI-enabled data centres ⁠in South Africa and Nigeria through Africa Data Hub Holding, a venture with an undisclosed UAE-backed investor to develop AI-ready data centre infrastructure across key African markets.

Mupita said MTN would ⁠be a minority investor in the venture, while its partner, which has experience building data centres in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries, would provide ⁠most of the capital and technical expertise.

The initial phase is expected to target about 150 megawatts of capacity across South Africa and Nigeria, with future expansion to be driven by demand, he added.