Ayoba, an African Super App, Hits Major Milestone of 20 Million Monthly Active Users – A 100% Growth in One Year

MTN backed messaging app, Ayoba, has reached an exciting 20 million monthly active users as of December 2022.

According to the telecoms leader, this represents growth of 100% compared to the 10 million monthly active users recorded at the same time last year.

“We celebrate this milestone and are pleased that, through Ayoba, we are able to provide accessible communications so that millions of people across our markets can enjoy the benefits of a modern connected life,” said MTN Group Chief Operating Officer, Jens Schulte-Bockum.

Managed by South Africa’s Simfy Africa Pty Ltd, Ayoba is described as a super app offering users instant messaging, voice and video calls, combined with over 100 content channels offering news, entertainment, sports and more embedded within the app.

The Ayoba application is open to all networks but developed as a partnership initiative with MTN, as part of MTN’s Ambition 2025 strateg, which targets 100 million monthly active users by 2025. Ayoba users receive free daily data in participating markets.

In terms of users, Ayoba’s leading countries include:

• Benin
• Cameroon
• Ghana
• Ivory Coast
• Nigeria
• South Africa

Ayoba’s growth in 2022 can be seen across several verticals:

• Leading the charge is the music streaming service, with its focus on local content and growth in streams of 174% in 2022
• In December 2022, the Year-on-Year (YoY) growth for messaging was 125% (messages sent), games by 208% (plays) and Micro-Apps by 322% (sessions)
• Ayoba users posted 85 million stories, updating their friends and family on their activities and interests
• In terms of engagement, users viewed 225 million cards across 150 channels on a variety of topics led by football updates, tech and entertainment news, food and fashion, rugby and other sports

French language content was led by influencer Muriel Blanche and Adamant Media, with francophone comedy. In 2022, Ayoba launched three new Arabic channels providing growth in content for markets like Sudan, covering entrepreneurship, football, and other issues.

“We believe in the vast potential of African digital talent and do our best to support them, from training to hackathons and accelerator programmes. 2023 will be even more exciting with all the new features and services we plan to introduce to make the Ayoba platform the gateway to the digital economy for start-ups across different markets in Africa.” – Burak Akinci, CEO, Ayoba