MTN Group has reported a strong financial performance for 2025, posting a 23% increase in revenue to R218.5 billion, driven largely by robust growth in its West African markets.
Nigeria and Ghana emerged as key contributors, with service revenue rising by 54.9% and 35.9% respectively. The performance marks a notable shift in the company’s growth engine away from its traditional stronghold in South Africa, where growth remained modest at 2%.
MTN Nigeria led the surge, more than doubling profitability and outperforming the South African business. In Ghana, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) climbed 50.3% to $1.276 billion, supported by increased demand for data, voice and mobile money services.
Across its 16 markets, MTN recorded 307 million voice subscribers, 172 million data users and 70 million mobile money (MoMo) customers by the end of the year. Data traffic rose by 27%, with average monthly usage reaching 12.5GB per user.
The group’s fintech segment also expanded, with transaction volumes increasing by 15% to 23 billion and total transaction value exceeding $500 billion. Capital expenditure stood at R38 billion, enhancing network capacity and extending broadband coverage to 94% of the population, while reducing data costs by 14%.
Operational efficiency measures delivered savings of R3.6 billion, contributing to a more than one-third increase in EBITDA to R98.5 billion. The company also announced a R6 billion share buyback programme and a 45% increase in dividends.
Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita said the results position the group to capitalise on long-term growth opportunities in Africa’s digital and financial services sectors.
