Ericsson and MTN Strengthen Partnership to Boost Financial Inclusion Across Africa
Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and the MTN Group (JSE: MTN) have expanded their strategic partnership in order to enhance mobile financial services and promote financial empowerment across the African continent. The collaboration aims to extend the scope of financial inclusion, leveraging MTN’s Mobile Money (MoMo) service on the Ericsson Wallet Platform.
The comprehensive suite of services is designed to provide MTN’s customer base across Africa with access to a cutting-edge mobile connectivity-based financial ecosystem. The partnership aligns with MTN’s goal of advancing financial inclusion, catering to both first-time users and high-end business applications.
Powered by the Ericsson Wallet Platform, MTN Mobile Money enables secure and convenient banking and payment transactions directly from mobile devices. Users can manage funds, pay merchants, access loans, and insurance services, contributing to financial freedom and stability.
The focus areas of this collaboration include the growth of merchant and e-commerce payments, facilitating national and international money transfers (remittance services), advancing banking solutions (BankTech), and offering insurance services (InsurTech). The partnership supports MTN’s ambition to build the largest and most valuable platform business, creating shared value for customers across Africa.
The agreement, signed during a meeting at Ericsson’s Group Headquarters in Kista, Sweden, signifies a commitment to key strategic priorities and collaboration between the two companies. MTN’s Mobile Money platform already boasts over 63 million active subscribers across 16 African countries, with annual transaction values nearly tripling since 2018.
Ericsson Wallet Platform, supporting over 400 million registered mobile wallets globally, processes more than 2.8 billion transactions worth over USD 40 billion every month. The extended partnership includes a transition to public cloud deployments and the refinement of the Open API services framework, fostering fintech innovation in Africa.
Serigne Dioum, Chief Fintech Officer at MTN Group, stated, “Our collaboration with Ericsson is a significant milestone in the execution of our Ambition 2025 – building the largest and most valuable platform business and creating shared value for our customers in Africa.”
Michael Wallis-Brown, Head of Mobile Financial Services at Ericsson, emphasized the partnership’s ability to empower people and businesses, promoting financial inclusion and supporting Ericsson’s vision for a connected Africa.
