Ayoba, Africa’s first instant messaging App, has reached a subscriber base of three million monthly active users in Nigeria.

Launched in 2019 and accessible on Android and iOS devices, Ayoba began as an MTN partner instant messaging app and was introduced into the Nigerian market in 2020 to support COVID emergencies.

Commenting on Ayoba’s milestone achievement, the Chief Digital Officer, MTN Nigeria, Srinivas Rao, said, “The world is increasingly becoming a fast-paced digital place with new technological advancements driving the constantly changing landscape. This is why at MTN, we are determined to lead digital transformation with easy-to-use connectivity solutions.

We work with like-minded strategic partners, who are committed to bridging the digital divide & bring effortless connectivity services to our customer’s fingertips.”

A key feature and offering of the app is the ability to instantly send, receive text and voice messages with any of their contacts whether they are on the Ayoba App or not. The function is available to all users on the App regardless of their device type or network service provider. MTN subscribers, however, get 700MB weekly for usage on the app.

Other key features include the most advanced end-to-end encryption – messages in any conversation are fully encoded until they are delivered to the destination, meant for the eyes of the sender & recipient only. Users can also subscribe to channels for locally relevant content across various categories. In addition, the App enables users to play over 120 games and listen to 200+ top local and international playlists via MusicTime.

Targeted at connecting millions of Africans across the world, the Ayoba App is available in 22 languages which include English, Pidgin (Nigeria) Igbo, Yoruba, and Hausa. The App is currently accessible in Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Afghanistan South Africa and 10 other African countries