MTN Group Fintech has entered into a strategic technology partnership with Ant International, a subsidiary of Ant Group – the Chinese technology giant behind Alipay – to transform its mobile money platform into a comprehensive “super app”.
A statement from MTN said the initiative will commence with a rollout in Nigeria next quarter, adding that, under the agreement, MTN will leverage Ant International’s technology to introduce a mini-app ecosystem within MoMo, alongside enhanced fraud prevention capabilities and new customer and merchant engagement features.
Neither party disclosed the financial details of the arrangement, nor indicated whether Ant International would acquire an equity stake in the business.
The partnership comes as MTN prepares to host its Capital Markets Day, where it is expected to provide further insight into its Ambition 2030 strategy. It also coincides with ongoing efforts to position its fintech division as a standalone business.
Fintech remains one of MTN’s strongest growth engines, accounting for nearly 13 per cent of group revenue in 2025. Securing a globally recognised technology partner is expected to strengthen the business’s appeal to investors as MTN explores future monetisation opportunities. MoMo currently serves more than 67 million active users across 14 African markets.
MTN follows a path previously taken by Vodacom, which in July 2020 announced a partnership with Ant Group’s Alipay to develop a super app for the South African market. At the time, Vodacom noted that the arrangement marked the first occasion on which Ant had licensed its Alipay platform to an external company without taking an ownership stake.
The resulting VodaPay platform was launched in September 2021, combining payments, mini-programmes, online shopping and buy-now-pay-later services within a single application.
Despite the success of the super-app model in China, international adoption has been more challenging. Tencent’s WeChat exited the African market in 2017, while VodaPay has yet to achieve anything close to the scale and market penetration enjoyed by Alipay in its home market.
MTN has also experimented with the concept through efforts to expand its Ayoba messaging platform into a super app. However, the planned overhaul of MoMo represents the company’s most significant and direct attempt to date, this time powered by technology from the company that pioneered the model.
Further details regarding the partnership and MTN’s broader fintech ambitions are expected to emerge during the group’s Capital Markets Day later this week.
