Strong performance in airtime lending and growth in advanced services drove MTN Nigeria’s financial technology revenue to nearly double in the second quarter of 2025.
Its unaudited financial results for the half-year that ended on June 30, 2025, show that fintech revenue increased by 84.2 per cent to N47.1 billion in Q2 from N25.6 billion in the same period the previous year. Fintech revenue increased 71.8 per cent to N83.2 billion in the first half of 2024 from N48.4 billion in the first half of 2024.
The telecom behemoth credited the expansion to its growing array of cutting-edge services and its airtime lending product, Xtratime. It pointed out that its partner network’s assistance in enhancing its fintech ecosystem helped attract more valuable users.
“This contributed to sustained growth in customer deposits, which increased by about five times compared to December 2024,” the company said in a recent statement.
MTN Nigeria reports a 6.1% decrease in active wallet base to 2.7 million
Despite the revenue spike, MTN Nigeria reported a 6.1 per cent decrease in its active wallet base to 2.7 million compared to December 2024. Nonetheless, 562,000 new wallets were added in Q2, indicating that the company was showing signs of recovery.
In keeping with its continuous efforts to improve distribution and establish a long-lasting fintech business, the company also reported a 49.7 per cent increase in active agents and a 3.5 per cent increase in merchant numbers.
In an attempt to expand beyond voice and data, MTN Nigeria is one of the telecom companies aggressively entering the financial services sector.
“We are committed to executing our fintech growth strategy,” said the Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola. “After recalibrating our approach earlier this year, we are encouraged by the positive trends in Q2 and the renewed momentum across our ecosystem.”
MTN Nigeria subscribers hit 80.9 million
In its 2024 financial year report, MTN Nigeria’s mobile subscribers rose by 1.6 per cent to 80.9 million, indicating impressive growth from the previous year, when it recorded 79.7 million active mobile subscribers.
Despite the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) industry-wide mandate on NIN-SIM registration, MTN’s active data subscriber base grew by seven per cent from 44.6 million in 2023 to 47.7 million subscribers in 2024.
The company said its subscribers result from constant innovation in customer value offers.