The company said service revenue rose nearly 25% to R218 billion ($13 billion) for the year ended December 31, 2025. Management linked the growth largely to strong performance in its key West African markets, especially MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana.

The result statement also confirmed that 2025 was the final year of the company’s Ambition 2025 strategy, which focused on expanding data services and digital financial platforms across its markets.

Across the group’s 16 operating countries, the total customer base rose to more than 307 million by the end of the year. Out of that figure, about 172 million were active data users, while about 70 million used mobile money services.

MTN said it invested about R38 billion during the year to strengthen its network and digital platforms. The investment expanded coverage and boosted capacity as demand for data continued to grow.

Data traffic on the network increased by 27%. At the same time, average monthly data usage climbed to 12.5GB per user, up from 10.8GB previously.

The group’s financial technology arm also expanded, with mobile money transactions rising by 15% to more than 23 billion transactions during the year. The total value of those payments exceeded 500 billion dollars.

Profitability also improved significantly, as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation reached R98.5 billion, representing growth of more than one-third in constant currency. The company said cost savings of R3.6 billion helped support that result.

The board declared a dividend of 500 cents per share for the year, a 45% increase from the 345 cents paid in 2024. The payout exceeded the company’s earlier guidance of at least 370 cents.

Group Chief Executive Ralph Mupita said the company will introduce a new shareholder remuneration structure aimed at distributing between 40% and 60% of equity-free cash flow.

The plan includes a share buyback programme of up to R6 billion, which the company said will be carried out gradually from 2026.

Nigeria drives earnings growth

MTN Nigeria swung back to profit after tax of ₦1.1 trillion in 2025, recovering from a ₦400.4 billion loss the previous year when currency depreciation triggered heavy foreign exchange losses, affecting revenue.

In the final quarter of the year alone, pre-tax profit rose to ₦569.6 billion. That was a 248.8% increase compared with ₦163.3 billion recorded in the same period in 2024.

At the group level, the Nigerian subsidiary also overtook MTN South Africa as the largest profit contributor.

Operating earnings in Nigeria more than doubled to about 1.93 billion dollars, far ahead of South Africa’s roughly 1.05 billion dollars. MTN Ghana also posted strong revenue growth, with operating earnings rising to about 1.28 billion dollars.

Together, the expansion in Nigeria and Ghana pushed West Africa to the centre of the company’s profit structure.

Growth supported by scale

Nigeria’s performance shows the size of the country’s telecom market and the growing demand for data and digital payments.

With a population of more than 200 million people and high smartphone use, the market generates large volumes of traffic and digital transactions.

However, the Nigerian operation is very expensive to run. Telecom towers rely heavily on diesel generators because electricity supply is unreliable, and additional security is required for many base stations.

As a result, network operating costs in Nigeria are significantly higher than in South Africa.

Even so, the scale of the market has allowed profits to expand faster than operating costs. Direct network costs rose only slightly during the year, while earnings more than doubled.

Investor confidence returns

Shares of MTN Group have increased nearly 80% over the past year, pushing the company’s market value to about 381 billion rand, or roughly 23.7 billion dollars.

With Nigeria now accounting for a growing share of profits, the country is expected to support the group’s future investment decisions, particularly in network expansion, data services and mobile financial technology.

This achievement, verified by Ookla Speedtest Intelligence, made Nigeria number one among MTN’s operating companies (opcos) in the region, outpacing others in terms of network performance and technological advancement.

Going beyond download speeds, MTN Nigeria also recorded a commendable median upload speed of 17.01 Mbps, narrowly surpassing MTN Ghana at 16.74 Mbps. 

The two opcos were the front-runners in both upload speeds and multi-server latency, with Ghana achieving great results despite not yet launching 5G services.

The surge in network performance was consistent across all MTN opcos in WCA, but Nigeria and Ghana stood out by improving their rankings over the past two years. 

MTN Nigeria’s top place is attributed to strategic investments in 5G technology and sustained upgrades to its existing network infrastructure.

The rollout of 5G services in Nigeria has been a huge factor in these advancements. Over the past 18 months, MTN Nigeria expanded its 5G service availability from 17.2% in early 2023 to 35.7% by mid-2024, overtaking South Africa’s 31.6%. 

This progress was achieved through a $120 million investment aimed at increasing coverage and enhancing broadband accessibility in key urban areas.

Nonetheless, Nigeria’s 5G adoption rate is still relatively low, with only 13.9% of users with 5G-capable devices actively utilising the service, compared to 31.3% in South Africa. 

Concerns over data costs, device affordability, and battery life have been barriers to adoption. 

To address this, MTN Nigeria is exploring strategies to make 5G services more accessible through affordable data plans and financing options for modern devices.

Performance Across the Region

Beyond Nigeria, MTN opcos in countries like Ghana, Benin, and Côte d’Ivoire have also recorded some improvements. 

MTN Ghana, for instance, tripled its download speeds within two years, thanks to enhanced infrastructure and high smartphone penetration. Meanwhile, MTN Benin maintained solid performance, although slight declines were observed in early 2024. 

Côte d’Ivoire experienced a surge in network speed during the African Football Championship in early 2024 but faced challenges maintaining these gains.

Cameroon lagged behind, showing only modest improvements in both download speeds and latency, while operational challenges and economic instability hindered further progress in other markets like Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry.

Economic and Operational Challenges

MTN’s success comes against the backdrop of economic and political challenges across WCA. Factors such as currency devaluation, inflation, and infrastructure vandalism have increased the cost of operations, while regulatory constraints have slowed down 5G deployment in some countries. 

But then, MTN remains focused on its Ambition 2025 strategy, which aims to provide 95% broadband coverage across its markets and double its mobile data user base by 2025.

MTN Nigeria’s achievements show mobile network advancements in Africa’s largest mobile market, which has over 217 million subscribers. 

With plans to invest $3.5 billion in Nigeria over the next five years, MTN aims to extend its leadership by expanding 5G coverage, addressing adoption challenges, and bridging the digital divide.

With MTN accelerating its 5G rollout and strengthening its 4G infrastructure, it thrives to meet the region’s increasing demand for reliable and fast mobile connectivity.