MTN wants its mobile money business to contribute a fifth to total group revenue in the next five years. The group has 35-million mobile money customers, who contribute 7%, or R10bn, to its service revenues.
Africa’s largest mobile operator has made a big bet on mobile payments as a driver of growth as it seeks to replace the revenues from its declining traditional voice business. The company has been on a strong push in recent years to diversify its business, pursuing new revenue streams in mobile data, enterprise ICT services, wholesale network services, fintech and digital services.