When speed is strategy
MTN MoMo did not reach 200 million wallets across 24 African countries by moving cautiously.
OPay did not build one of Nigeria’s largest mobile POS networks, serving over 50 million users, by hesitating.
Both firms understood a fundamental truth of digital finance: success favours the swift. They adapted rapidly to local conditions, navigated regulatory change with agility, and brought products to market with pace and precision.
MTN MoMo: from mobile transfers to financial ecosystem
Launched in Uganda as a basic mobile money transfer service, MTN MoMo evolved into a robust, multi-service platform operating across the continent in approximately five to seven years. Today, it enables:
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Utility and school fee payments
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Cross-border remittances
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Merchant QR code acceptance
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Digital savings and microloans (MoMoAdvance)
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Integration with third-party APIs
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Access to insurance products and airtime bundles
By embedding itself into the daily financial lives of millions, MTN MoMo has become a key driver of financial inclusion in Africa.
OPay: velocity and versatility in Nigeria
OPay entered the Nigerian market in 2018 with a super-app strategy focused on mobile payments and essential services. Its rollout was swift and ambitious:
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2018 – Launched ORide (bike hailing) and OFood (food delivery)
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2019 – Expanded into OTrike, OBus, OKash (micro-lending), and OWealth (savings)
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2020 – Reoriented around core financial services: payments, transfers, and bill payments
Now recognised by the World Economic Forum for its role in advancing financial access, OPay continues to shape the contours of Nigeria’s digital economy.
Technology as a catalyst for growth
As the stories of MTN MoMo and OPay illustrate, vision matters—but execution at speed makes the difference.
That is why digital payment platform Way4 is engineered for speed and scale. With 95% of its functionality configurable via parameters, Way4 allows financial institutions to launch products in days, not months—and to turn velocity into value. Vietnamese fintech SmartPay, for instance, progressed from offering a simple digital wallet to building a comprehensive payment ecosystem on Way4 in just three years due to the functionality, flexibility, and scalability of the platform. Today, it serves 40 million customers and supports 700,000 merchants.
Way4’s architecture enables:
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Real-time transaction processing
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Modular product design
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Customisable fee and loyalty frameworks
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API-first integration for third-party services
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Scalable infrastructure for issuers, acquirers, and digital banks
Way4 - Multi-asset payments platform - wallets, cards, crypto, CBDC
These capabilities offer institutions the tools to respond to market signals instantly, experiment with new revenue models, and grow without rebuilding core systems.
To learn more about OpenWay’s solutions and explore further case studies, please complete the form to receive our brochure:
