MTN MoMo revenue doubles as wallets hit ₦43.8B but fintech arm shrinks 26%
MTN Nigeria's MoMo Payment Service Bank delivered standout growth in the nine months to September 2026 — core mobile money revenue surged 102.2% as customer wallet balances more than quadrupled to ₦43.8 billion from December 2025 levels. Monthly active users reached 3.2 million (up 11.6% year-on-year) and Q3 transaction volumes jumped 69.1% quarter-on-quarter after the platform migrated to Alipay+ in August for better reliability and features.
The bright spot contrasts with MTN's broader fintec segment, where revenue fell 25.9% to ₦97.5 billion from ₦131.6 billion a year earlier. The drag came from a three-month suspension of airtime and data credit services (April–June) that only resumed under a new multi-partner model. That service rebounded 78.5% in Q3 but couldn't fully offset the first-half hole.
Investors rewarded the MoMo momentum: MTN shares gained 3.03% on October 30 to close at ₦850, though still below the 52-week high of ₦915. The divergence signals a structural shift — wallet-based float income is scaling fast while legacy airtime-lending models face regulatory and partnership headwinds.
If you hold MTN stock or track fintech trends, the question isn't whether MoMo grows — it's whether the wider fintech reset can stabilise before wallet economics fully take over. Will MTN's multi-partner credit model hold, or does the future belong entirely to the wallet?