{"id":636939,"date":"2026-06-13T17:06:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T17:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/636939\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T17:06:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T17:06:37","slug":"mtn-enlists-alipay-owner-to-turn-momo-into-a-super-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/636939\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN enlists Alipay owner to turn MoMo into a super app"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-124106 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/mtn-momo-mobile-money-2156-1120-3.jpg\" alt=\"MTN enlists Alipay owner to turn MoMo into a super app\" width=\"2156\" height=\"1120\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>MTN Group Fintech has signed a technology partnership with Ant International \u2013 part of Ant Group, the Chinese company behind Alipay \u2013 to rebuild its MoMo mobile money service into a \u201csuper app\u201d, beginning with a launch in Nigeria next quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Under the agreement, announced on Tuesday, MTN will use Ant\u2019s technology to add a mini-app platform to MoMo, along with stronger fraud controls and additional engagement features for consumers and merchants. The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, or whether Ant is taking a stake in the business.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement comes as MTN prepares to host its capital markets day, where the group is expected to flesh out its Ambition 2030 strategy, and while it continues to carve out its fintech arm as a standalone business. Fintech has become one of MTN\u2019s fastest-growing segments, contributing almost 13% of group revenue in 2025, and a marquee global partner strengthens the unit\u2019s investment case ahead of any future monetisation. MTN says MoMo has more than 67 million active users across 14 African markets.<\/p>\n<p>Under the agreement, MTN will use Ant\u2019s technology to add a mini-app platform to MoMo<\/p>\n<p>MTN is not the first South African operator to turn to Ant for this. In July 2020, rival Vodacom <a href=\"https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/vodacom-to-launch-alipay-fintech-super-app-in-south-africa\/176568\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signed a technology partnership with Ant Group\u2019s Alipay<\/a> to build a super app in its home market \u2013 a deal Vodacom said at the time was the first instance of Ant licensing the Alipay platform to an outside party without taking an equity stake. That product <a href=\"https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/vodacom-launches-vodapay-super-app-in-south-africa\/170462\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">launched as VodaPay in September 2021<\/a>, bundling mini-programs, payments, online shopping and buy-now-pay-later credit into a single app.<\/p>\n<p>Super-app model<\/p>\n<p>The super-app model Ant pioneered in China has proved hard to export. Tencent\u2019s WeChat withdrew from Africa in 2017, and VodaPay\u2019s local traction has fallen well short of the scale Alipay enjoys at home. MTN has tried before, too, having sought to grow its Ayoba messaging service into a super app. The MoMo redesign is its most direct attempt yet \u2013 this time using the technology of the company that wrote the template.<\/p>\n<p>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/techcentral.co.za\/nedbank-jumo-bet-on-ai-lending-for-the-underbanked\/282272\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nedbank, Jumo bet on AI lending for the underbanked<\/a><\/p>\n<p>More detail on the partnership, and on MTN\u2019s wider fintech plans, is expected at the operator\u2019s capital markets day this week.\u00a0 \u2014 \u00a9 2026 NewsCentral Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MTN Group Fintech has signed a technology partnership with Ant International \u2013 part of Ant Group, the Chinese&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[30014,2306,215188,55828,215189,215190,86,56,54,55,43369],"class_list":["post-636939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-alipay","tag-mobile","tag-momo","tag-mtn","tag-mtn-momo","tag-mtn-nigeria","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}