July 23 — MTN Uganda (MTNU.UG), opens new tab, the East African country’s largest telecom firm, plans to split off its fintech unit into a separate entity and aims to list it on the local bourse in three to five years, the company said late on Tuesday.
The company, which has a mobile subscriber base of about 21 million, is a unit of South Africa’s MTN Group (MTNJ.J), opens new tab and competes mainly with the local unit of India’s Bharti Airtel (BRTI.NS).
MTN Uganda received shareholder nod at an extra-ordinary general meeting held on Tuesday for the proposed separation of its mobile money and fintech business, the company said in a statement.
Mobile money is a cell phone-enabled service that allows subscribers to transfer money and make payments for products and services like utility bills, energy purchases, food orders and ride hails. The platform has grown rapidly in Africa, where it is now widely used.
Under the reorganisation, MTN Uganda’s mobile money fintech business will be transformed into a separate entity majority owned by MTN Group Fintech Holdings B.V, the fintech arm of MTN Group.
The goal is to “ultimately see the independent fintech business list separately on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE), alongside MTN Uganda, within a three- to five-year period,” MTN Uganda Chief Executive Sylvia Mulinge said in the statement.
