Africa’s mobile telephony giants, MTN and Ericsson have strengthened their cooperation aimed at enhancing mobile financial services and financial empowerment across Africa, a statement has said.
The statement on the MTN website said under the renewed partnership would broaden the scope of financial inclusion from new users to high-end business applications, with MTN’s Mobile Money (MoMo) service integrated with the Ericsson Wallet Platform.
The comprehensive suite of services will provide MTN’s customer base across Africa with access to a world-class mobile connectivity-based financial ecosystem, said the statement.
“In addition to ramping up MTN’s goal of advancing financial inclusion for the unbanked, the service provider will offer advanced financial services to address the rapidly evolving digital financial needs of individuals and enterprises,” it added.
Head of Mobile Financial Services at Ericsson, Michael Wallis-Brown said “We’re touching 10% of the market in Africa today, and we can get to 50% – that’s enormous growth for us.”
This is not the first time two telecom giants are working together. In 2019, they embarked on a five-year deal that launched the Ericsson Wallet Platform across several countries where MTN operates.
““At MTN, we are not just connecting people, we are unlocking a world of financial possibilities for every African. With 63.5 million active users, our Mobile Money platform is advancing economic empowerment across the continent,” said Serigne Dioum, Chief Fintech Officer for the MTN Group.
Dioum described MTN’s collaboration with Ericsson as a significant milestone in the execution of the mobile telecom company’s ambition for 2025, seeking to build the largest and most valuable platform business and create shared value for our customers in Africa.
Michael Wallis-Brown, Head of Mobile Financial Services, Ericsson, commented that: “Ericsson’s partnership with MTN is a world-leading example of the ability of mobile financial services to financially empower people and business – from giving the unbanked their first opportunity to control their finances, making it easier for women to access financial services and promoting digital inclusion – to enabling more advanced users to access high-end services.”
Wallis-Brown added that the model could be applied in any market anywhere in the world to genuinely empower mobile subscribers of all financial standings.
“Our valued MTN partnership also supports Ericsson’s AfricaInMotion vision to promote a sustainable and connected Africa,” he added.
With 63.5 million active users, MTN’s MoMo platform advances economic empowerment across the continent, with a spectrum of mobile financial services, encompassing money transfers, payments, savings, and loans for every consumer, actively driving financial inclusion, and advancing economic empowerment across the continent.
Currently, over 61.7 million individuals send and receive money through the platform. MTN MoMo’s transaction value has skyrocketed, nearly tripling from $76 billion in 2018 to $204 billion by 2022.
Given that Ericsson Wallet Platform has over 400 million registered mobile wallets globally, this partnership could further propel MTN’s MoMo growth.
MTN Mobile Money commands up to 90 percent of the mobile finance revenue in Ghana while other players, including the fintech wings of the legacy telcos struggle for the left-overs.