MTN Group Fintech, Africa’s largest fintech platform, has urged regulators across the continent to adopt harmonised frameworks that will enable financial services innovation to thrive, warning that fragmented rules continue to constrain growth.
The call was made at the company’s inaugural Fintech Summit 2025 in Johannesburg, a three-day gathering that brought together more than 350 delegates, including policymakers, regulators, innovators, and industry leaders.
Under the theme ‘Take-Off’, the summit reaffirmed MTN’s ambition to drive financial inclusion, support small businesses, enable financial independence, and build digital ecosystems that can accelerate Africa’s economic growth.
Chief Executive Officer of MTN Group Fintech, Serigne Dioum, said mobile money had become a central pillar of Africa’s financial inclusion story but needed a stronger regulatory foundation to expand further.
“Inclusion becomes sustainable when payments are part of daily life. Our ambition is to move Africans from being merely financially included to becoming financially independent and ultimately wealthy. For this to happen, we must create harmonised regulatory frameworks that allow innovation, safety, and interoperability to flourish,” Dioum said in a statement on its website.
Mobile money is now used by 33 per cent of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa, with annual transactions exceeding $1.1tn, contributing around five per cent to GDP. MTN’s own platform, MoMo, boasts 283 million active accounts and has grown from a payments service into a catalyst for job creation, small business growth, and economic resilience.
Chief Legal Officer of MTN Group Fintech, Nikiwe Tanga, stressed that harmonisation was key to building trust and sustainability in Africa’s digital economy.
