MTN exposing MoMo API to developers

MTN South Africa has revealed that it has rolled out a hackathon to challenge “skilled tech developers and innovators” to build solutions on top of its Mobile Money (MoMo) platform.

Exposure of the MoMo application programming interface (API) to developers was a teaser for a possible future addition to a revamped MoMo platform by MTN financial services chief Bradwin Roper in an interview with TechCentral last month.

Roper mentioned in a statement that in this country alone, eight million people are registered on the MTN MoMo platform. “This massive user base makes it ideal for local talent, developers, companies and entrepreneurs to unlock economic growth through financial and digital solutions in their communities,”

The hackathon has been taking place from the 31^st of July and will end on the 9^th of October 2023 and spans 15 countries, each with its own prize pool of US$10 000 (R185 000 at the time of writing). MTN encourages developers to build solutions that “promote financial inclusion and literacy in their respective markets”.

GSMA’s research that represents most of the world’s mobile operators, shows that although sub-Saharan African African mobile money subscriptions are on the rise, up by 17% to 163 million in 2022, active 30-day usage remains relatively low at 29%.

Roper also went on to reveal that part of the problem is also the lack of sophistication in the solutions that mobile money platforms offer to the customers.

Searching for different solutions from developers may be a good way for MTN to better understand the nuances of the various markets they operate in and find solutions to problems they did not know exist in the mobile money space.