Ericsson, MTN complete MoMo cloud-native migration across Africa

Ericsson and MTN Group Fintech have completed the MoMo Evolved Migration in key African markets, including Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda and Uganda

Following these deployments, the companies are progressing with similar transformation initiatives in other markets, with an ongoing project in Cameroon and discussions underway to extend the programme to Benin, the Republic of the Congo and Zambia. Selected OpCos are also assessing migration to public cloud environments.

Powered by the Ericsson Fintech Platform, the initiatives are moving MTN MoMo from a legacy virtualised infrastructure to a standardised cloud-native architecture. The transformation is designed to enhance platform performance and operational efficiency while creating a scalable foundation for MTN Group’s Ambition 2030 strategy and the continued growth of digital financial services across Africa.

With digital financial services expanding rapidly across the continent, mobile money platforms need robust and scalable infrastructure capable of handling rising transaction volumes while ensuring service availability. Since adopting the cloud-native architecture, MTN has recorded reductions of up to 86% in CPU processing overhead and database load. The deployment provides a high-availability platform designed to accommodate future growth while delivering a consistent experience for consumers, merchants and ecosystem partners.

The modernised platform also streamlines operations and enhances performance. Lower infrastructure overhead and improved API responsiveness support faster integration for developers, merchants and ecosystem partners. Across the markets already migrated, the deployment has generated measurable gains, including lower application and database resource utilisation and API response times improved by up to 80%.

Artemij Demidczyk, acting chief technology and information officer at MTN Group Fintech, stated, "The MoMo Evolved Migration advances our vision of building Africa's leading digital financial platform. Through a cloud-native foundation, we are enhancing performance, strengthening resilience, and accelerating the delivery of innovative digital financial services for consumers, merchants, and partners across our markets."

Hossam Kandeel head of Mobile Money and business development, Ericsson West and Southern Africa, commented, "Modernizing mobile financial services infrastructure is essential to supporting the continued growth of digital financial ecosystems. Through the Ericsson Fintech Platform, we have helped MTN Group Fintech establish a cloud native foundation that improves operational efficiency, strengthens platform performance and enables the scalability needed to support future innovation and financial inclusion."

Ericsson and MTN Group Fintech have worked together for more than 10 years to develop mobile financial services across Africa. The Ericsson Fintech Platform builds on this partnership by providing an infrastructure foundation for expanding digital financial services, deepening engagement with developers and ecosystem partners, and supporting the continued growth of MTN’s fintech operations.