MTN Accelerates Digital Financial Services Expansion with Cloud Infrastructure Upgrade

MTN Group Fintech has partnered with Ericsson to migrate its mobile money (MoMo) platform to a standardized cloud-native architecture across four key African markets: Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda, and Uganda. This strategic move is part of MTN’s broader Ambition 2030 plan to position fintech at the forefront of digital financial services expansion across Africa.

The migration transitions MoMo from legacy virtualized environments to core cloud infrastructure, utilizing Ericsson’s fFintech Platform to enhance performance and operational efficiency. According to Ericsson, this upgrade reduces CPU processing overhead and database load by up to 86%, resulting in faster application loading times for users.

“As demand for digital financial services continues to grow across Africa, mobile money platforms require resilient, scalable infrastructure that can support increasing transaction volumes while maintaining service availability,” noted Ericsson in a press statement. This sentiment aligns with the broader transformation occurring in African finance, where mobile payments are rapidly replacing traditional banking methods.

Foundation for Future Growth

The cloud migration enables faster integration for merchants and customers and provides a scalable foundation for future fintech innovation. Artemij Demidczyk, Acting CTO at MTN Group Fintech, highlighted that this advancement “enhances performance, strengthens resilience, and accelerates the delivery of innovative digital financial services.”

Following the initial rollout in four countries, MTN has already begun migration projects in Cameroon and plans to extend the upgrade to the Republic of Congo, Benin, and Zambia. The company aims to complete the transition across all 16 African markets by 2030.

Strategic Implications for Africa’s Fintech Landscape

The move underscores a broader trend of telecom companies separating fintech operations to comply with regulations, secure funding, and accelerate digital innovation. For MTN specifically, this allows the core telecom business to focus on connectivity while MoMo operates as an independent entity poised for growth.

Mobile money platforms like MTN MoMo are playing a critical role in financial inclusion across Africa, enabling millions of unbanked individuals to access essential financial services through their mobile phones.