MTN Nigeria, the country’s largest telecom provider, is on track to record over ₦5 trillion ($3.26 billion) in revenue after posting its highest-ever half-year revenue of ₦2.38 trillion ($1.55 billion at ₦1,533.74/$) in H1 2025.
This positions MTN to surpass the ₦3.36 trillion it earned in 2024, as it unlocks a new revenue benchmark, supported by its 52.33% share of the country’s 172.48 million mobile subscriptions. If MTN reaches its N5 trillion revenue target, it would be earning nearly as much as the entire telecoms sector, including internet service providers, infrastructure firms, and other telcos, made in 2023 (₦5.30 trillion), according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The company’s improved performance follows years of economic headwinds and currency devaluation that slashed telcos’ average revenue per user (ARPU) in the country from $3.08 in 2023 to $1.89 in 2024.
“Revenue in naira has stopped growing as the number of subscribers has increased. Falls in ARPUs indicate pressure on prices and reductions in average usage,” GSMA, the global body for mobile operators, said in 2024.
However, macroeconomic conditions have improved in 2025, aided by a more stable naira and regulatory support for market-reflective pricing. MTN says this will support continued operational and financial momentum in H2, as demand picks up and the full effect of recent price adjustments and network investments kicks in.
“Given the strong momentum in our business performance, we have revised up our FY 25 guidance and now target service revenue growth of ‘at least low-50%’,” said Karl Toriola, MTN Nigeria CEO, in the company’s H12025 earnings report.
The H1 2025 performance marks a 54.5% increase from the ₦1.54 trillion ($1 billion) recorded in H1 2024, and a 200.5% surge from ₦791.26 billion in H1 2021. MTN’s income growth has been largely driven by a 50% hike in telecom service prices and a surge in data adoption.
“During the period, we completed the phased implementation of the new price adjustments across voice and data bundles, largely benefiting Q2,” Toriola noted.
The tariff boost
After a decade of lobbying for cost-reflective pricing, punctuated by losses and investment slowdowns, the NCC approved tariff hikes on January 20, 2025. This raised the floor price of calls from ₦6.40 to ₦9.60 per minute, SMS from ₦4 to ₦6, and 1GB of data from ₦287.50 to ₦431.25.
When this first kicked in, MTN projected a ‘mid-40%’ boost in service revenue for 2025.
“Our tariff adjustments will take effect through the course of the coming year and will anticipate revenue growth in the range of mid-40s percent, with a similar range expected for EBITDA margins to also mid-40 percent,” Toriola said on an investors’ call in early 2025.
A 40% growth would have translated to an additional ₦1.34 trillion in revenue, with the telco’s 2024 service revenue totalling ₦3.36 trillion. This would have brought total revenue for 2025 to ₦4.71 trillion. However, the revised forecast of 50% growth translates to ₦1.68 trillion, bumping total revenue to ₦5.04 trillion.
Beyond recording a boost in revenue numbers, MTN’s stock prices have rallied since the beginning of 2025. An investment of ₦1 million in MTN at the end of 2024 would have grown to ₦2.4 million by August 1, 2025, driven by a 140% rise in share price from ₦200 to ₦480.
Its market capitalisation crossed the ₦10 trillion mark from ₦3.29 trillion at the end of 2024, making it the second Nigerian company to do so after Dangote Cement in January 2024.
“The tariff review contributed, and MTN itself has been very strategic in stabilising its earnings,” said Abiodun Keripe, the managing director at Afrinvest Consulting.
More data, more money
With 51 million active data users, MTN’s record revenue is driven by surging internet demand. Data revenue hit ₦1.23 trillion ($802.32 million) in H1 2025, up from ₦727.33 billion ($474.22 million) in H1 2024.
Data traffic grew by 41.2%, while average usage per subscriber increased 26.3% year-on-year to 13.2 gigabytes (GB).
“We added approximately 3.7 million smartphones to the network in H1, raising smartphone penetration to 62.6%,” Toriola stated, reflecting a broader trend of increasing smartphone penetration in the country.
MTN’s data usage is not isolated, as data from the NCC shows that national internet usage hit a record high of 1,043,431.98 terabytes (TB) in May 2025, up from 771,993.56 TB in May 2024, despite the spike in data costs. The growth is largely driven by video streaming and social media usage.
GSMA, the global body for telcos, reports that 85 percent of Nigerians using mobile internet use it for video calls, 75 percent for watching free online videos, and 54 percent for listening to free music. YouTube reported a more than 50 percent increase in watch time in Nigeria between May 2023 and May 2024, according to official figures.
MTN, which already carries more internet traffic than its peers, expects to be the biggest beneficiary. While it generated ₦1.23 trillion from data in H1, Airtel Nigeria, its closest competitor, earned ₦464.72 billion ($303 million).
The telco is also expanding its data offerings for enterprise customers who use most of it. It recorded a 39.7% growth in enterprise revenue, supported by growth in fixed connectivity, data services, and converged solutions.
According to Toriola, data will drive revenue growth for the next 10 years. “We are positioning ourselves to capture the opportunities of growth for the next 10 years,” he said.
“We are just getting started. Nigeria has one of the largest youth populations in the world — a population that is digital-native, mobile-first, and increasingly online. Broadband penetration still has room to grow. Smartphone penetration is also increasing,” Yahaya Ibrahim, chief technical officer at MTN Nigeria, added.
Fintech bet begins to pay off
While fintech operators like OPay and PalmPay led Nigeria’s ₦79.55 trillion mobile money market in 2024, MTN’s fintech unit is showing traction. It generated ₦83.19 billion in H1 2025, up 71.8% from ₦48.41 billion in H1 2024.
Growth was led by its airtime lending service (Xtratime), and growth in advanced services, supported by onboarding high-value customers.
“Our continued focus on expanding advanced services and enhancing the quality of our fintech ecosystem has attracted more high-value users as we leverage our partner ecosystem, contributing to sustained growth in customer deposits, which increased by approximately fivefold compared to December 2024,” the telco said.
MoMo wallet deposits rose to ₦17.98 billion in H1 2025, up from ₦3.84 billion in December 2024, despite a 6.1% drop in active wallets to 2.7 million. MTN is now targeting agent-led growth, where companies like Moniepoint and OPay have succeeded, with agent numbers up 49.7% and merchant numbers up 3.5%.
“We are committed to executing our fintech growth strategy. After recalibrating our strategy earlier this year, we are encouraged by the positive trends observed in the second quarter,” said Toriola.
Betting on the cloud
MTN is also setting its sights on Nigeria’s $850 million cloud market dominated by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. It recently invested $20 million in building local cloud services, powered by a new $100 million data centre in Lagos, the startup capital.
MTN is pricing services in naira and offering a 15–20% discount to target startups facing FX-related price spikes for cloud services.
“There is a difference between charging in naira and being priced in naira,” said Lynda Saint-Nwafor, Chief Enterprise Business Officer at MTN Nigeria, during a media interaction in June. Since the naira woes began in 2023, Nigerian startups have increasingly sought local alternatives for dollar-denominated services like cloud computing. The local currency, in which most startups generate revenue, has dropped from ₦471/$ before the Central Bank removed its rate cap to ₦1,533.74/$ as of August 1, 2025.
To accelerate adoption, MTN is borrowing a leaf from Google by launching a 12-week accelerator program to attract growth-stage startups, with up to ₦100 million in grants and incentives up for grabs.
“We want Africa’s future to be powered by MTN’s cloud,” said Saint-Nwafor.
According to an ecosystem player, MTN’s size and impact over the years may convince startups. However, adoption may be slow among established startups due to migration complexities. “It isn’t easy to move from one vendor to another,” the player said.
“This initiative (MTN cloud) aligns with our ambition to drive inclusive innovation, create new revenue streams, and deepen our role as a trusted digital partner for businesses across sectors, accelerating their digital transformation,” MTN said in its earnings report.
Growth backed by network expansion
Much of MTN’s revenue projection will be driven by increased network investments and improvements. Already, the company has spent 208.2% (₦986.12 billion) more on capital infrastructure to expand network capacity, tackle congestion, and double down on the rollout of fibre-to-the-home network (FibreX).
“The accelerated capex in H1 was deployed to support growth in data traffic as well as enhance service quality and user experience,” the company said.
However, this has not translated into better services for many of its 90.25 million subscribers. “There are days when I can’t get any work done,” said Bolu Omotayo, a PR manager.
Adeolu Ogunbanjo, president of the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS), argued that service quality hasn’t improved in line with tariff hikes.
“Nigerians are complaining because poor services have persisted despite the price increase,” he said.
According to the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), vandalism and infrastructure theft are partly to blame.
“These acts of sabotage have significantly disrupted network services, causing widespread connectivity blackouts leading to degradation of services and severely impacting millions of subscribers,” it said in a recent communique.
When MTN launched in 2001, it promised its subscribers call coverage wherever they were. Today, as voice services lose profitability and digital activity surges, MTN is building a ₦5 trillion revenue company by becoming the infrastructure that takes and keeps Nigerians online.
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