The CEO of MobileMoney Limited (MTN MoMo), Shaibu Haruna has debunked claims that the company has stopped registering new mobile money agents.
At the 2025 Annual General Meeting of MTN, a shareholder complained that all his attempts to register as a mobile money agent has failed because MTN customer services staff at the MTN Connect Shops keep turning people like him down with the excuse that the company has stopped registering new mobile money agents because the space is saturated.
That shareholder is not alone, as this writer was also turned down with the same reasons months ago when he tried to register an agent wallet for a family member.
But Shaibu Haruna gave a direct answer to the shareholder saying “No we have not stopped registering new MoMo agents.”
He later told Techfocus24 that “last year alone we registered thousands of new agents across the country. In fact our active agents base grew by 13 per cent.”
The MML Boss explained that they are now doing selective distribution of agents. The objective is to ensure good spread of their agent network rather than over concentration of agents at the same location, which destroy the viability of the agent business and also deprive ease of access.
He said the process involves physical verification of the proposed location by the company’s field sales staff before it is vetted for approval.
The shareholder also requested MTN to create a database of communities available for new agents to enter so that interested persons can look at that data and select which communities they want to operate in.
To that, Shaibu Haruna said interested persons should first ensure that their proposed location is not 100 meters from an incumbent agent location, adding that once that is cleared, “they can go online and initiate their registration, and a tracking number will be issued for follow up.”
He said once the registration process is initiated online, a field agent will contact the applicant to continue and complete the process.
MoMo Agents concerns
It would be recalled that not long ago, various mobile money agency groups in the country made a loud demand on MML for increase in their commission. On that occasion, they noted that when the mobile money agency business first started it was very profitable because there were very few agents serving many customers within particular catchment areas. But now a single community has several agents, and that has depleted value in that business.
That observation was one of the reasons agents asked particularly MML to increase their commissions in the face of the steep competition created by MML, which registered several agents within same communities.
So, the alleged moratorium on the registration of new agents appeared to be MTN’s strategy to stabilize the space and secure value for the existing agents, instead of piling on more agents and depleting value further. It was also seen as MTN’s own strategy to keep the number of agents it has to pay commissions to at a reasonable level, as the number of active agents, as reported by the Bank of Ghana, is already high, standing at 411,000 as of February 2025.
But Shaibu Haruna has cleared the air on that matter, saying that MTN is still registering new MoMo agents, but it is being done strategically to ensure value for all agents and ease of access for all customers.
Active Agents vs Active Wallets
Speaking of the number of agents, the Bank of Ghana Summary of Financial and Economic Data for March 2025 indicates that the 411,000 active agents have 23.6 million active wallets to serve.
This means on the average, each agent is serving at least 57 customers on the regular.
In reality though, some agents get to serve more customers than others based on their respective locations, how easily accessible they are to customers and the level of competition they face from other agents within their catchment area.
This is exactly what MML says it is seeking to address with the new agent registration strategy to ensure that no agent is unduly shortchanged.
Meanwhile, MML exited 2024 with 17.2 million active wallets, which represents 73% wallet market share, making it the runaway dominant player in that space.
The company also reported that MoMo revenue sustained its robust positive momentum with year-on-year revenue growth of 54.4% to GHS4.4 billion, adding that the growth was driven by a 12.8% YoY growth in active users, a review of the fee structure and significant growth in advance services.
It also reported that mobile money withdrawals recorded a strong growth of 45.2% YoY, while transfers grew by 44.6%, adding that advance services outperformed the two above with an 82.8% YoY growth, led by payments and lending products.
In the year under review, MoMo’s revenue contribution to total service revenue increased to 24.9% (2023: 21.7%).
