MTN has sharpened its focus to fintech, infrastructure and connectivity over the next five years, refining its “Ambition 2025” strategy, which was premised on reducing debt, exiting operations in the Middle East and growing new businesses such as financial services.
Like other operators in Africa, the group is working to increase its average revenue per user, a key metric in assessing the performance of mobile carriers. For MTN, that is at about $2 (R35) at present.
“When I meet global CEOs in the developed world, they’re talking about $50, $80 [per user],” said group CEO Ralph Mupita.
Mupita unpacked the group’s recently released 2025 interim results in the first episode of The Y’ello Chair, a new vodcast featuring exclusive insights from the leaders and changemakers on the forces driving Africa’s digital future — watch it below.
MTN ended the six-month period under review (ended June 30) with subscribers up 4.7% to 297.7-million, making it the largest in the sector by that metric.
The vision
“When we sit back and look at the next five years, we see the demand for data and fintech services as a structural growth trend still to come,” Mupita said.
“I often tell the story that when I first joined the MTN Nigeria board in 2017, I saw the average usage per customer was 500MB. Today it’s 14GB; that’s in eight years. There’s this surge of demand [for data] as people use the internet for their own productivity and lifestyles.”
MTN sees a similar opportunity for financial services, giving more people largely left out of the formal banking system access to mobile payments, lending and insurance.
“These are the two engines we expect will guide our structure for the next five years. We are arranging ourselves about three platforms: connectivity, fintech and digital infrastructure. That’s what we think about beyond 2025,” Mupita said.
Connectivity
Regarding connectivity, the group is looking to grow its market share for home internet services, competing in the fixed wireless market using 4G and 5G technology, and in fibre.
The company is also looking to increase the number of customers using data services.
“We still have a lot of customers who are not yet using data-capable devices. Our customer base is almost 300-million. Probably just 50% of them are using data every day and are still stuck in the voice era that we want to push through by offering digital,” said Mupita.
To this end, MTN’s business in SA is offering smartphones for R99, hoping to entice more people to start using data services.
In the six-month period under review active data subscribers increased by 10.3% to 164.4-million, accounting for 55% of total customers.
Financial inclusion
Mobile Money (MoMo), MTN’s fintech segment, reported a 1.7% increase to 63.2-million and fintech transaction volumes rose 14.5% to 11.1-billion in the period.
“We have an ambition to try to include as many people as we can,” Mupita said. “We’re not trying to be a big bank; we’re not trying to be a universal bank. We look at fintech with the lens of financial inclusion. People who don’t have access are the customers we seek.”
Last year, the group received a R3.8bn investment in its fintech business from payments giant Mastercard, valuing the unit at $5.2bn.
Digital Infrastructure
“Digital infrastructure for us is super important because data workloads, over time, are going to grow fourfold in the next three to four years. That growth will need infrastructure: fibre, data centres and so forth.”
The group sees building its own fibre network as unviable in SA, even with its ambitions to be a big presence in the market. It has highlighted this position on a number of occasions, leaving only an acquisitive strategy on the table.
Outside SA, MTN has a goal of reaching 135,000km of fibre by the end of 2025. During the review period the company’s infrastructure unit, Bayobab, secured new contracts amounting to R148.2m, with about 19,000km of fibre rolled out. That brings MTN and Bayobab’s total fibre footprint to more than 127,000km.
Mupita also sees the growing use of AI by consumers and businesses as a driver for connectivity and digital infrastructure.
Geopolitics
On geopolitics, Mupita, like many business leaders, is paying attentions to tariffs and global trade relations.
“We have to pay attention to the conflicts. Where is there conflict in the world? We operate in Sudan for example,” he said.
“We also look at technology developments. There are massive developments in AI for example. There are key questions about who has access to the most advanced chipsets and how does that impact us at MTN?”
As such, the group is also looking at supply chains, export controls and access to equipment and semiconductors. “We’ve got to pay attention to that in this industry,” said Mupita.
He added that as a capital intensive business, MTN is also paying attention to financial markets.
Legal
MTN is also dealing with a number of legal matters.
The company was recently approached, through its external US counsel, regarding a US department of justice grand jury investigation relating to MTN Group, its former subsidiary in Afghanistan and Irancell.
“They have not accused us of any wrongdoing. We are co-operating voluntarily to their requests for information,” said Mupita.
Then there's the Turkcell case. The Turkish telecommunication group accused MTN of bribing SA and Iranian officials to secure 49% of Irancell in 2005 that gave it a licence to operate in the country. MTN has denied the charges.
“The matter has gone to the Supreme Court of Appeal. We are contesting one of the outcomes. It’s gone all the way to Constitutional Court. Let that process play out and we’ll see what comes of it,” said Mupita.
A set of five antiterrorism cases furthermore involve MTN and other institutions. These concern US service members and civilians who were injured or killed during conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2005 and 2010.
The plaintiffs’ complaints allege that MTN supported anti-American militias in these countries through its participation in Irancell, in which it holds a minority, non-controlling share.
In response, the group stated that it “conducts its business in a responsible and compliant manner in all its territories and will defend its position where necessary”.
Leading for the future
To push the group into this future, the group has announced major changes to its top executives’ roles after evaluating its strategy and plans for execution.
Among the changes announced this week with the view to enhancing growth and returns in SA, Ferdi Moolman, the current group chief risk officer, will succeed Charles Molapisi as CEO and executive director of MTN SA.
Yolanda Cuba, currently vice-president for Southern and East Africa, will step down from the group executive committee to become deputy CEO and executive director of MTN SA.
This article was sponsored by MTN.
