MTN Nigeria has reported a steep 55.6% year-on-year drop in active wallets for its MoMo Payment Service Bank (PSB), with the number falling to 2.1 million in the first quarter of 2025, down from 4.8 million in Q1 2024.
The telecom giant also saw a 25% quarter-on-quarter decline, following 2.8 million active wallets reported in the fourth quarter of 2024. In its unaudited Q1 2025 financial results, MTN attributed the drop to a strategic shift focused on ecosystem quality and onboarding high-value users.
“This enabled us to onboard more high-value customers and improve float levels, thereby enhancing the overall health and sustainability of the ecosystem,” the company stated in the report.
CEO Karl Toriola, commenting on the results, said the company is preparing to launch a rural penetration strategy aimed at reaching financially excluded and underserved populations, reinforcing MTN’s long-term financial inclusion goals.
“We are now prepared to invest and intensify qualitative field acquisition efforts, particularly in rural and underserved areas,” he said. “These efforts are aligned with our strategic objective to build a more robust, inclusive, and scalable digital financial ecosystem.”
Despite the decline in wallet activity, MTN’s fintech revenue surged by 57.9%, primarily driven by strong performance from its airtime lending product, Xtratime. The company also reported a 47.7% increase in agents and a 23.6% rise in merchants on the MoMo platform since December 2024.
The first quarter of 2025 marked a return to profitability for MTN Nigeria, with a profit after tax of ₦133.7 billion rebounding from a ₦392.7 billion loss in Q1 2024. Total revenue reached ₦1 trillion in the quarter, representing a 40.5% year-on-year increase from ₦752.9 billion, supported by a tariff hike implemented mid-February.
Fintech revenue climbed to ₦36 billion from ₦22.8 billion in the same period last year, buoyed by higher float income and the onboarding of more premium users.
Meanwhile, MTN’s revamped customer acquisition strategy launched in Q3 2024 has begun to pay off, streamlining incentives and engagement to drive deeper market penetration and improve sales channel performance.
Digital services revenue also grew significantly, posting a 92.1% increase. However, monthly active users of MTN’s rich media services (excluding Ayoba) fell by 19.4% to 7.9 million compared to December 2024, largely due to ongoing platform optimisation.
