MoMo PSB’s Active Wallet Users Surges to 3.6 Million in Q3, 2023

MTN Nigeria Fintech subsidiary MoMo PSB active wallet users reached a total of 3.6 million in the third quarter (Q3) of 2023, recording a 53.1% year-on-year increase in active users.

This was disclosed by MTN Nigeria during the announcement of the company’s financial statement. 

According to MTN, MoMo users now account for 40.6% of its fintech customers, and currently have 293,000 agents, up by 55.7% year-on-year bringing its services closer to the people.

However, the number of active MoMo wallet users is quite low compared with the number of registered users. The report reveals that at the end of Q3 of 2023, there were 27.9 million registered MoMo users.

Speaking on the company’s Fintech subsidiary performance, MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola said,

“Our fintech business continued to gain traction, recovering from the slowdown in H1. Fintech revenue increased by 5.6% as we increased the adoption of our core fintech services (wallet and MoMo agent business). Our fintech active user base was down by 20.4% YoY but rose by 27.2% QoQ to 8.9 million.

“The decline recorded YoY was due to a slowdown in activity level on the over-the-top (OTC) platform following the cash shortages in Q1. However, our efforts to rebuild the base continue to yield results with a 25.5% growth in OTC users versus Q1 2023.”

MTN’s MoMo active users have continued to surge significantly after it recorded a 1.2 million increase in its wallet users in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023, which brought its total active wallets to 3.2 million.

During the Q1 report, MTN said the increase in wallet users was boosted by its reopening of the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) interface for inbound and outbound transfers, which enabled the company to accelerate full commercial activities and grow active wallets.

In May 2022, the Fintech subsidiary commenced operation following the final approval for a Payment Service Bank (PSB) granted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Within six weeks of operations, MoMo hit a milestone after it registered 4.2 million wallets with about 2.4 million active users generating transaction volumes of approximately 7 million. At the end of June 2022, it held N1.1 trillion for MoMo customers.

MTN Nigeria’s Fintech subsidiary, Mobile Money Payment Service Bank (MoMo PSB), has continued to gain traction and significant adoption, which has continued to play a crucial role in Nigeria’s financial inclusion drive.

MoMo PSB brings one of the easiest and most convenient ways to bank in Nigeria. Some of its services include the collection of deposits and the offering of digital accounts to banked and unbanked populations.

With MoMo, individuals and small businesses can be able to perform cross-border transfers through available methods in the future.

Also, individuals and agents can accept deposits from customers and small businesses, hold funds in an electronic wallet, and offer saving products, amongst others.

They can also engage in different local payments, which include merchant payments, bill payments, and person-to-person transfers. Agents running MoMo business can provide POS and ATM services and build a network of physical banking agents for deposits, payments, and withdrawals.

Businesses can also manage their finances and pay staff salaries with MoMo Bulk Disbursement. It also offers a range of solutions to increase efficiency and decrease operating costs, driving faster growth of financial inclusion in Nigeria, especially for micro small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

MTN’s MoMo PSB is well positioned to enable millions of unbanked and underserved Nigerians to access a wide range of financial service products with an expansive agent network of over 166,000 agents and digitized partnership infrastructure.