South Africa’s MTN sang the praises of its mobile money unit in the first half of 2016, as it laid out how the service has a role in “a deep and fundamental” strategic review.

The money business increased revenue by 41 per cent to ZAR1.29 billion ($94 million) in H1 2016, compared to the same period last year. The increase was calculated on a constant currency basis.

The performance was the result of “focused” customer engagement and a “more agile” platform, it said.

Registered money customers grew by 5 per cent to 36.5 million across 15 countries in the first half. MTN also gives a separate figure for active customers, which grew by 18 per cent, supported by its units in Uganda, Ghana, Rwanda and Benin.

MTN takes a close look at itself
Mobile money has a leading role in the group’s digital portfolio, which will feature prominently in a review of its operations and processes, MTN said.

The wide-ranging review is a reaction to pressure on the company’s traditional voice revenue and growing demand for high quality data and digital services.

Part of the review will involve MTN housing new revenue streams, particularly digital services, outside the core business. “This will allow for more agility and greater flexibility to accelerate growth in these areas,” it said.

The company also believes it can improve efficiency and customer service by boosting service channel productivity through digitisation, as well as leveraging mobile money as a distribution channel. Re-using an existing channel for an additional service has obvious cost benefits.

MTN said it continues to focus on financial services such as remittance, micro-lending and savings offerings. It has a significant network of 160,000 agents.