For the first time, Nigerians in the US, UK, Canada, France, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and South Africa can push funds directly into MoMo wallets in under 60 seconds, immediately usable for airtime, bills, P2P transfers, transport, or e-commerce thanks to a partnership between Thunes and MoMo PSB.
Nigeria’s 17-million-strong diaspora stretching from New York’s nightshift cabbies to London’s nursing wards sends home $20.9 billion every year, propping up nearly 10 million households in an economy battered by inflation, naira volatility, and a shaky banking system.
But the journey those dollars take is rarely smooth: fees averaging 7.5%, processing times of 3–5 days, and clunky bank rails that lock out the 40% of Nigerians who remain unbanked. The integration cuts through that gridlock. No bank accounts, no queues, no delays.
The Power Players: Thunes’ Global Glue Meets MoMo’s Local Muscle
Thunes, headquartered in Singapore, has spent the past decade building what it calls a “smart superhighway”, which is a B2B payout network spanning 130+ countries, 80 currencies, and more than 200 partners, including fintechs, neobanks, and telcos.
Unlike SWIFT’s multi-hop bureaucracy, Thunes’ APIs settle cross-border payouts in minutes and are optimised for emerging markets where 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked. It is backed by Visa, Helios, and former PayPal leadership, giving it both scale and credibility.
MoMo PSB brings the on-the-ground firepower. MTN’s Nigerian fintech arm serves 2.7 million active wallet users and rides on Nigeria’s highest smartphone penetration in urban centres.
But more importantly, MoMo sits inside MTN’s 80-million-customer Nigerian ecosystem, meaning distribution, brand trust, and network reach on a scale unmatched by standalone players.
Its wallet rails already process over 1 billion transactions annually, from bill payments to retail QR scans.
Together, they fuse global speed with local scale. Thunes’ Chief Network Officer Aik Boon Tan called it “instant, secure, convenient access for Nigerians everywhere,” while MoMo CEO Phrase Lubega framed it as a lift for millions who “deserve fast, affordable access to funds from abroad.”
The Mechanics: Seconds, Not Days
The remittance pain points Nigerians know too well: slow settlement, high fees, and mandatory bank accounts are precisely what this integration dismantles.
Transfers from any connected app or bank in the eight launch corridors land in MoMo wallets almost instantly, with FX priced at mid-market rates minus transparent spreads.
| Legacy Remittance | Thunes–MoMo Upgrade | User Impact |
|---|---|---|
| 3–5 days settlement | Under 60 seconds | Real-time access to funds |
| 5–8% fees | 1–3% (est.) | 50%+ savings |
| Requires bank account | Wallet-only | Opens access to 40% unbanked |
| Cash-out dependency | Immediate digital spend | Faster commerce, fewer queues |
This plugs directly into Nigeria’s booming digital-payments universe, which surged past $100 billion in value in 2024.
And unlike card or bank transfers, wallet-to-wallet flows carry lower operational costs, savings that can be passed to end users.
READ ALSO:Digital Wallet Users to Enjoy Reduced Cross-Border Payment Fees and Processing Times with Thunes
The Ripple Effect: Inclusion, Liquidity and Economic Lift
Remittances are macroeconomic stabilisers, accounting for nearly 6% of Nigeria’s GDP. Faster access radiates impact across households, SMEs and communities.
Modelling by the World Bank suggests that instant delivery paired with lower fees could lift household disposable income by 10–15%, reduce reliance on predatory lending, and boost local consumption.
Digitisation compounds that effect. For millions without bank accounts, an incoming remittance is their first interaction with a formal financial product.
Wallet histories become proto-credit files, enabling access to micro-loans, SME capital, insurance, and savings tools much like Kenya’s M-Pesa ecosystem, where digital finance ultimately added 20% to the country’s GDP.
Competition, meanwhile, gets shaken up. Apps like LemFi, Africhange, and SendCash, which are already operating at thin margins, must now match MoMo’s speed or lose share.
Banks risk watching retail remittances migrate permanently to mobile wallets. And with AfCFTA driving intra-African trade, real-time cross-border rails become a continental necessity, not a convenience.
The Verdict: A Corridor to Digital Dominance
The Thunes–MoMo integration is more than a rails upgrade and a structural reset for Nigeria’s remittance economy.
By fusing global real-time infrastructure with Nigeria’s most widespread mobile-money ecosystem, the partnership could shift billions from slow, expensive channels to instant, low-cost wallets.
By late 2026, analysts expect more than 5 million new users, $2 billion in saved fees, and a remittance market where days-long delays become a thing of the banking past.
One connection. Millions empowered. Nigeria’s remittance on-ramp to the world just went real-time.
Thunes & MoMo PSB: Key Services and Digital Payment Tools
Thunes Bank continues to power cross-border payments, enabling fast transfers such as Thunes PayPal to Mpesa and seamless Thunes Mpesa withdrawal for users moving money across markets.
Access to the platform is available through Thunes login and the mobile-friendly Thunes app, which support global remittances and business payments.
On the other hand, MTN’s payment bank offers multiple digital tools, including the MoMo PSB app download, MoMo PSB login, and the fully featured MoMo PSB app for managing mobile wallets.
Customers can also transact using the MoMo PSB code, while Android users benefit from the dedicated MoMo PSB app download for Android.
New customers can onboard through Momo PSB sign-up, recover their MoMo PSB login password, and reach support via the MoMo PSB customer care number for any account or service issues.
Ronnie Paul is a seasoned writer and analyst with a prolific portfolio of over 1,000 published articles, specialising in fintech, cryptocurrency, climate change, and digital finance at Africa Digest News.
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