MTN Group and Ericsson have expanded their partnership to provide mobile banking services and promote financial inclusion in Africa. The collaboration aims to leverage MTN’s Mobile Money (MoMo) service on the Ericsson Wallet Platform to empower millions of African citizens. The platform conducts billions of transactions each month through communication service providers and financial institutions worldwide. The extended partnership also involves the development of an Open API services platform to accelerate financial innovation in Africa. The collaboration will provide MTN customers with access to a mobile connectivity-based financial ecosystem, with a focus on FinTech areas such as merchant and e-commerce payments, money transfers, banking solutions, and insurance services.
MTN’s Mobile Money platform has more than 63 million active users across 16 African nations, and its yearly transaction value has nearly tripled from 2018 to 2022. The platform enables a wide range of financial services including money transfers, payments, savings, and loans. The collaboration with Ericsson is seen as a critical step towards MTN’s Ambition 2025 goal of establishing the largest and most valuable platform business in Africa.
Michael Wallis-Brown, Head of Mobile Financial Services at Ericsson, highlighted the collaboration as an example of the ability of mobile financial services to empower people and businesses and promote financial inclusion. The partnership also aligns with Ericsson’s vision to support a sustainable and connected Africa.
