Africa’s largest telecoms company MTN is seeking coders on the continent to develop financial and transactional apps for its ballooning fintech business.
Yesterday, the mobile operator extended an invitation to developers to a coding festival, which will run for the next two months, saying the winning solution will be an important step that will allow MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) to become a universal payment solution within the countries in which MTN operates.
MTN operates in 19 markets, with a subscriber base of more than 270 million, and is seeking to garner a significant share of the growing financial services sector in Africa.
The telco is targeting 100 million fintech users on the continent, and has in recent months been beefing up the financial services unit with new products and making key appointments.
Yesterday, the telco announced the MoMo Hackathon, saying increasing financial inclusion through the use of digital technology is a critical component to fostering Africa's economic development.
For the challenge, MTN is seeking coders located in Ghana, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Rwanda, eSwatini, Congo Brazzaville, Guinea Conakry, Zambia and Benin.
“You are expected to find innovative financial and transactional apps for MTN MoMo using MTN Mobile Money APIs. Your solution will be an important step forward that will allow MTN MoMo to become a universal payment method in your country,” said MTN.
“We want to unlock economic growth through financial and digital solutions for consumers and businesses of all sizes. As we grow our service offering, we aim to create a marketplace that supports cashless and digital economies through affordable, inclusive, understandable and comprehensive financial services.
“We play a key role in the evolution of mobile financial services to mobile financial (fintech) platforms by offering in-store payments, remittances, prepaid services, mobile wallets, micro-loans and micro-insurance.”
The fintech space has become one of the leading drivers of innovation and job creation across Africa, and for telcos, it’s a new cash cow as they seek to diversify revenue streams away from the traditional voice and data.
MTN has already been making strong inroads in the space and has set the second quarter of its 2022 financial year as the deadline to spin-off its lucrative fintech business.
In Nigeria, MTN’s biggest market, the telco holds a payment service bank licence, which allows the telco to offer a wider range of mobile financial services beyond the traditional person-to-person mobile money transfers, such as lending and bill payments.
Announcing the hackathon, MTN says: “The range of solutions to bridge the financial services gap in the markets in which MTN operates requires partnerships with financial service providers, regulatory authorities, other mobile network operators, merchants, distributors, businesses, technology providers, entrepreneurs and developers. It is by working with its partners that MTN improves the economic and social well-being of millions of Africans.
“In its commitment to closing the financial inclusion gap, MTN Group has made its Mobile Money platform available across its entire footprint through the MoMo API programme.
“MTN is now looking for companies, entrepreneurs and developers across the continent to innovate and leverage mobile money to accelerate financial inclusion and digitise payments. MTN is delighted to invite developers and entrepreneurs from 10 countries to participate in the MoMo API Hackathon.”
Share