MTN Targets 3x Growth in Mobile Money Subs by 2021

The MTN Group is aiming to treble its Mobile Money user base from the current 21 million to about 60 million during the next three to four years, CEO Rob Shuter told attendees at Deloitte's recent Africa in 2018 Outlook event, reports ITWeb.

Shuter believes the company's Mobile Money service, currently available in 14 countries, is key to its digital service growth ambitions and aims to become Africa's largest financial services firm by user numbers, or, as he reportedly stated, become Africa's "largest bank."

The service currently has 21 million active users (customers that have used the service during the past 30 days) and is currently gaining new users at a rate of about 1 million every two months. MTN is also brokering new partnerships to expand its mobile finance service offerings.

MTN Group CEO Rob Shuter is targeting significant Mobile Money user growth in the next three to four years.

It does, of course, have significant competition, particularly from Safaricom, in which one of MTN's key rivals, Vodacom, now owns a stake: Safaricom, with the help of Vodacom, is planning to expand its M-PESA mobile money empire to new markets.

Shuter also noted that economic trends are looking more positive in MTN's core markets of South Africa and Nigeria and that ongoing population growth provides a natural opportunity to further grow the current total group user base, which currently stands at more than 230 million.

— The staff, Connecting Africa