MTN Group has completed the migration of its Mobile Money platform to a cloud-native infrastructure across four African markets. The upgrade covers Ghana, Eswatini, Rwanda and Uganda. MTN carried out the project in partnership with Ericsson, using the Ericsson Fintech Platform as the technical foundation.
The migration moves MoMo away from a legacy virtualized environment. In its place, MTN now runs a standardized cloud-native architecture. This shift is designed to boost platform performance and cut operational costs across the affected markets.
The results are already visible. MTN recorded a reduction of up to 86 percent in CPU processing overhead and database load after the migration. Meanwhile, API response times improved by as much as 80 percent. These gains matter because mobile money platforms handle enormous transaction volumes every day. They also support lending products, merchant payments, remittances, savings tools and insurance services. A slow or outdated system can quickly become a bottleneck as demand grows.
The project does not stop at four countries. MTN and Ericsson are extending the transformation to Cameroon, where migration work is currently underway. Talks are also ongoing to bring Benin, the Republic of the Congo and Zambia onto the same cloud platform. In addition, some MTN operating companies are exploring a further move to public cloud infrastructure.
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Artemij Demidczyk, Acting Chief Technology and Information Officer at MTN Group Fintech, said the migration strengthens the company’s vision of building Africa’s leading digital financial platform. He noted that the cloud-native foundation improves performance, builds resilience and speeds up the delivery of new digital financial services for consumers, merchants and partners.
This move fits into MTN’s broader Ambition 2030 strategy. The plan sets out the telecom group’s roadmap for the next five years, running from 2026 to 2030. It focuses on scaling platforms for consumers, homes and businesses across the continent. MTN currently serves more than 300 million subscribers across 19 markets, with tens of millions of active MoMo users. As Africa’s internet population grows toward 1.1 billion by 2029, MTN is positioning its fintech infrastructure to handle that scale without breaking down.
By modernizing MoMo’s backbone now, MTN is laying the groundwork for faster growth later. Developers and merchants should benefit from quicker integrations. Consumers, in turn, should notice a smoother, more reliable experience on the app. The company’s next challenge will be extending this same cloud transformation to the rest of its African footprint, while competing operators like Vodacom push their own fintech ambitions across the continent.
