By: Ganiyu Olayinka
Telecom giant MTN is weighing applications for banking licences in select markets as it looks to move beyond partnership-based lending and begin extending credit directly from its own balance sheet.
Speaking to journalists in Johannesburg on Tuesday, MTN Chief Executive Ralph Mupita said the group is accelerating its shift into fintech as a growth engine outside traditional telecom revenue, with lending now standing out as one of the fastest-expanding parts of its mobile money business.
“We’re seeing good growth on advanced services, which are our future-proof services,” Mupita said, pointing to payments, e-commerce and lending as key drivers. “The big growth now, which will be the growth of the future, is actually lending.”
At present, MTN extends loans through partnerships with banking institutions rather than lending directly. That could change, Mupita indicated, as the company considers pursuing banking licences in markets where it has a large enough customer base and sufficient deposits sitting in mobile wallets to justify the move.
“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,” he said, adding that this would allow MTN to lend “off our own balance sheet” over time without necessarily abandoning its existing partnership model.
Mupita stressed that any shift toward direct lending would be applied selectively rather than rolled out across all of MTN’s markets, and would proceed cautiously given the risks that come with taking on a banking function.
Beyond financial services, Reuters reported that MTN is also expanding its bet on digital infrastructure. The company is planning to build AI-enabled data centres in South Africa and Nigeria through Africa Data Hub Holding, a joint venture with an as-yet-unnamed UAE-backed investor focused on developing AI-ready data centre capacity across major African markets.
Mupita said MTN would hold a minority stake in the venture with its partner, an investor experienced in building data centres in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Gulf supplying the bulk of the funding and technical know-how.
He said the project’s first phase is targeting roughly 150 megawatts of capacity split between South Africa and Nigeria, with any further expansion to be shaped by market demand going forward.