For years, mobile money has been one of the most important financial services offered by African telecommunications companies. It allows customers to send money, pay bills, buy airtime and withdraw cash without relying entirely on traditional banking services. MTN built a sizeable business around this model, but the company now wants MoMo to do considerably more.
In August 2026, MoMo Payment Service Bank (MoMo PSB), MTN Nigeria’s mobile money subsidiary, moved to a new platform powered by Ant International’s Alipay+ technology. The migration followed a strategic partnership announced by MTN Group Fintech in June 2026. Why MTN MoMo adopted Alipay+ architecture is closely tied to the company’s plans to expand beyond conventional mobile money into digital finance, lifestyle and commerce services.
MTN now has bigger plans for MoMo beyond its traditional mobile money services. Instead of concentrating mainly on transfers and payments, it wants MoMo to become a platform where customers can access financial products, interact with businesses and use different digital services without leaving the application.
What does Alipay+ bring to MoMo, and why did MTN choose this technology for its next phase of fintech growth?
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MTN wants MoMo to do more than process payments
Sending and receiving money remains central to mobile money, particularly in markets where access to conventional banking services is limited. However, the business opportunity extends beyond transaction fees.
A mobile wallet can serve as a distribution channel for savings products, insurance, merchant services, digital lending and other financial offerings. It can also connect customers with businesses providing transport, shopping, delivery and everyday services. MTN wants to develop this wider ecosystem around MoMo. Its partnership with Ant International is part of an effort to give the platform the flexibility to accommodate more services and business partners.
The commercial reasoning is straightforward. A customer who opens MoMo only to transfer money may complete a few transactions and leave. A customer who also uses it to pay merchants, access financial products and purchase other services has more reasons to return. For MTN, more activity within the platform creates opportunities to generate revenue from different services. It also gives merchants and other businesses access to an existing customer base.
Alipay+ provides the technology for a super-app ecosystem
One of the main attractions of the partnership is Alipay+’s support for a more integrated digital ecosystem. MTN announced in June 2026 that the partnership would introduce a super-app platform with mini-app capabilities. The idea is to allow businesses and service providers to make their offerings available within MoMo, giving customers access to different services through one application.
Mini-apps are smaller applications that operate within a larger platform. They allow users to access specific services without necessarily downloading a separate application for each provider. For example, a customer could use MoMo to transfer money, pay an electricity bill, access a transport service or interact with a delivery business. Each service could operate through an integrated mini-app experience.
MTN has already provided an example of this approach. During its November 2, 2026, Q3 earnings call, MoMo PSB CEO Bode Abifarin disclosed that the platform had hosted a mini-app connected to the Dangote shares offer, giving customers access to the investment opportunity. He also discussed partnerships around services such as transport and delivery.
The migration opens MoMo beyond MTN’s traditional ecosystem
Another important reason for adopting Alipay+ is the opportunity to open the platform to more businesses and customers. Speaking during the Q3 2026 earnings call, Abifarin explained that the previous MoMo platform operated largely as a closed ecosystem tied to MTN. The new arrangement changes this approach, making it possible to work with a wider range of partners.
This is particularly relevant in Nigeria, where financial technology companies, banks, merchants and service providers are constantly looking for ways to reach customers. An open platform makes partnerships more central to the business model. For MTN, this creates an opportunity to expand beyond its existing customer relationships. It also gives the company access to services and business propositions it may not need to develop independently.
Also Read: Nigerians Use Digital Payments. They Just Don’t Trust Them.
Security, reliability and scalability are part of the upgrade
Running a platform that supports different financial products and third-party services comes with operational demands. A system designed mainly for basic wallet transactions has different requirements from one supporting merchants, savings products, partner integrations and a growing number of digital services.
MTN’s partnership announcement highlighted improved fraud prevention, ecosystem integration and richer engagement features as part of the Alipay+ platform. These capabilities are important in Nigeria’s digital payments market, where transaction security, customer verification and anti-money laundering controls need constant attention.
MTN’s fintech business is becoming more important to its growth strategy
The migration also highlights the growing importance of fintech to MTN’s wider business. Telecommunications companies are expanding beyond traditional voice and messaging services as customers spend more time using mobile data and digital products. Fintech also gives telecom companies another source of revenue, particularly in markets where mobile phones play a central role in everyday financial activities.
MTN has built an extensive mobile money presence across Africa, giving it a customer base, merchant network and distribution infrastructure on which to develop additional services. Its financial results show the scale of this operation. During the first half of 2026, advanced MoMo services generated 37.4% of total MoMo revenue, excluding airtime advance, after recording 31.8% growth.
MTN Nigeria’s nine-month results provide a clearer picture of its fintech performance. Core mobile money revenue increased by 102.2%, driven mainly by higher float income as customer wallet balances more than quadrupled to ₦43.8 billion from December 2025.
Overall fintech revenue, however, declined by 25.9%. This was largely linked to the suspension of the airtime and data credit service between April and June. The service resumed under a multi-partner arrangement, with revenue recovering by 78.5% in Q3 compared with the previous quarter.
What the migration means for Nigeria’s fintech competition
MTN’s move could influence how other financial technology companies approach the Nigerian market. The country’s fintech industry includes digital banks, payment processors, wallet providers and specialist applications serving different customer needs. Many of these businesses have built their operations around particular services, such as transfers, merchant payments, savings or lending.
This does not mean standalone fintech applications will disappear. Specialist providers can still compete through product quality, pricing, customer experience and services that a broader platform may not offer. Some could also become partners within MoMo’s ecosystem. MTN’s existing customer base, telecommunications infrastructure and merchant network give it a head start in building this ecosystem. However, its success will depend on attracting reliable partners, delivering useful services and moving customers from legacy wallets to the new platform, a process management confirmed was still ongoing during its November earnings call.
At the end of September 2026, MoMo recorded 3.2 million monthly active users on its new platform. MTN also reported a 69.1% increase in transaction volumes in Q3 compared with the previous quarter. The company attributed this to underlying customer engagement, although the figures do not establish how much of the increase came directly from the new platform.
MTN’s adoption of Alipay+ architecture goes beyond replacing its existing mobile money infrastructure. It marks a shift in how the company intends to compete in Africa’s fintech market. MTN wants MoMo to become more than a digital wallet for sending money and paying bills. The company is expanding the platform to include financial products, business services and everyday transactions, giving its fintech business a wider role beyond traditional mobile money.
