MTN Chat use jumps 90% in South Africa as group chases 317 million customers
The operator says digital self-service is carrying more everyday traffic, with its WhatsApp-based chat channel growing fastest in its home market.
MTN Chat use in South Africa rose 90% between January and September 2026, while engagement on the MTN App grew 72% over the same period, the group said as it closed out Customer Service Week.
The figures cover MTN’s home market, where the operator says its WhatsApp-based chat channel now handles transactions and support, and the app carries account management, personalised offers and rewards. The group serves more than 317 million customers across 19 markets.
Selorm Adadevoh, MTN Group Chief Commercial, Strategy and Transformation Officer, framed the shift as a test of effort rather than technology.
“Customers experience our strategy through the moments they have with MTN,” he said. “The test is simple: can they connect, transact or get help without unnecessary effort? Our markets know their customers best. The Group’s job is to help them solve the problems that matter, learn quickly and share what works.”
Adadevoh said the group’s approach rests on digital self-service doing more of the routine work, with AI reducing effort and sharpening relevance, while keeping human help available when customers need it.
“Digital Self Service should make everyday tasks easier, with AI helping to reduce effort and provide more relevant support,” he said. “Human assistance must remain accessible when customers need it. Listening to customers should guide how we design and improve those services.”
He added that trust depends on whether a service visibly completes. “Trust is built through reliable services and clear, consistent interactions,” he said. “Customers need confidence that their connection works, their payment has completed and any problem is resolved quickly and transparently.”
Two other markets show how the group is applying that. In Nigeria, MTN has added voice capability to Zigi, the AI-powered assistant inside the myMTN NG app, so customers can speak to it to check balances, buy data, review usage and get help. In Rwanda, MTN is using AI-based tools to identify transmission faults and their likely causes earlier, so technical teams can respond sooner when network performance starts to deteriorate.
Adadevoh said the group’s spread lets a fix in one market inform another, provided the reasoning travels with it.
“Some of our strongest ideas come from teams closest to the customer,” he said. “What works in one market can offer useful lessons for another. The important thing is to understand why it works and adapt it to the customers and circumstances there.”
MTN places the work inside its Ambition 2030 goal of becoming what it calls Africa’s most trusted and effortless experience provider. The group also cited an industry projection that mobile technologies and services will contribute around US$290 billion (about R5,1 trillion at an exchange rate of roughly R17,60 to the dollar) to Africa’s economy by 2030, a figure attributed to the GSMA and not to MTN itself.
Source: MTN Group, Customer Service Week: Going the extra mile for more than 317 million customers, https://www.mtn.com/customer-service-week-going-the-extra-mile-for-more-than-317-million-customers
