MTN Nigeria Communications Plc’s mobile money business, MoMo Payment Service Bank (MoMo PSB), recorded a 102.2% increase in core revenue in the first nine months of 2026, as customer wallet balances more than quadrupled to ₦43.8 billion.
The growth, driven largely by higher income from funds held in customer wallets, highlights the expanding role of mobile money in MTN Nigeria’s digital financial services business, despite a decline in revenue across its broader fintech operations.
According to the company’s financial results for the nine months ended September 30, 2026, customer wallet balances rose to ₦43.8 billion from approximately ₦9.84 billion at the end of December 2025.
The company attributed the increase in core mobile money revenue mainly to higher float income generated from the growth in customer balances.
MoMo PSB also recorded an increase in customer activity, with monthly active users reaching 3.2 million at the end of September, representing an 11.6% increase from 2.9 million in the corresponding period of 2025.
Transaction volumes rose by 69.1% in the third quarter compared with the preceding quarter, indicating stronger usage of the platform.
The performance comes as MTN Nigeria intensifies efforts to expand its digital financial services through technology upgrades and improved customer experience.
In August 2026, MoMo PSB migrated to the Alipay+ platform, which MTN Nigeria described as a more reliable, secure and feature-rich foundation for expanding its digital financial services.
The migration is expected to support the development of MoMo PSB into a larger digital financial services platform as the company continues moving existing customers from legacy wallets and onboarding new users.
However, the strong performance of its core mobile money business contrasts with the decline recorded across MTN Nigeria’s overall fintech segment.
The company’s fintech revenue fell by 25.9% to ₦97.5 billion in the nine months ended September 2026, compared with ₦131.6 billion in the corresponding period of 2025.
The decline was largely attributed to the temporary suspension of its airtime and data credit service between April and June 2026, which affected revenue during the period.
MTN Nigeria said the service had resumed under a new multi-partner model and continued to recover in the third quarter, with revenue increasing by 78.5% compared with the second quarter.
The contrasting performance shows that while disruptions to its airtime and data credit business weighed on overall fintech revenue, its mobile money operations continued to expand.
For MTN Nigeria, the growth in MoMo PSB provides an important opportunity to strengthen its position in Nigeria’s increasingly competitive digital financial services market, where mobile payments and wallet-based transactions are becoming more significant.
