MTN Nigeria profit jumps 55% to ₦1.17 trillion as data demand surges

MTN Nigeria, the country’s biggest mobile network, made a profit of ₦1.17 trillion in the first nine months of 2026 — up 55.3% on the same period last year. The company said the jump came from Nigerians using far more mobile data, while it kept a tight grip on its costs.

The unaudited results, released on Friday, 30 October 2026 and published on the Nigerian Exchange, show a business earning more from every part of its network. Service revenue rose 23.7% to ₦4.59 trillion, and total revenue rose 23.6% to ₦4.61 trillion. But profit grew more than twice as fast as sales, because costs rose much more slowly than income.

The results also show how far MTN Nigeria has shifted from a phone-call company to a data company. Data revenue grew 35.8% to ₦2.68 trillion — more than half of the company’s total revenue — while the number of people using its data services rose to 57.2 million.

At a glance

What happened: MTN Nigeria reported a 55.3% rise in profit after tax to ₦1.17 trillion for the nine months ended 30 September 2026, on service revenue up 23.7% to ₦4.59 trillion.

Why it matters: It shows that demand for mobile data in Nigeria keeps growing fast, and that MTN is turning that demand into profit by controlling costs and investing heavily in its network.

What happens next: MTN says it will keep investing in network coverage and home broadband, rebuild its mobile-money business, and restore its airtime credit service to normal levels by the end of November 2026.

The headline numbers

Profit after tax — the money left after all costs and taxes — rose 55.3% to ₦1.17 trillion, up from ₦750.2 billion in the same nine months of 2025. Profit before tax rose even faster, by 59.4% to ₦1.80 trillion, from ₦1.13 trillion a year earlier.

Earnings per share, which is the profit divided by the number of shares, also rose 55.3%, to ₦55.60. Free cash flow — the cash left over after paying for day-to-day running costs and investment — rose 57.5% to ₦1.17 trillion, from ₦742.6 billion.

The company also became more profitable on each naira of sales. Its profit after tax margin improved by 5.1 percentage points to 25.3%. In simple terms, MTN kept about 25 kobo as profit from every naira of revenue, compared with about 20 kobo a year earlier.

A strong third quarter after a slow second quarter

The third quarter of 2026, from July to September, was the strongest part of the year. Chief Executive Karl Toriola said the company had delivered “a very strong” third quarter and had reversed a temporary slowdown in the second quarter.

Service revenue grew 19.7% in the third quarter compared with the same quarter last year, and 8.4% compared with the second quarter. Growth sped up during the quarter, reaching 21.6% in September alone.

Profitability improved even faster in the quarter. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation — known as EBITDA, a measure of the profit a business makes from its day-to-day operations before paying interest, tax and the cost of wear and tear on its equipment — rose 32.8% year on year and 12.5% quarter on quarter. The EBITDA margin widened by 5.8 percentage points to 58.7%.

Toriola said: “Growth is increasingly volume-led, driven by more users, deeper data adoption, higher usage and rising demand for home broadband, supported by continued investment in network coverage, capacity and quality.”

Data is now the engine of the business

Data is the clearest driver of MTN Nigeria’s growth. Data revenue rose 35.8% to ₦2.68 trillion in the nine months, up from ₦1.98 trillion a year earlier. That is more than half of the company’s total revenue of ₦4.61 trillion.

Active data users grew 12% to 57.2 million, up from 51.1 million a year earlier. The average data user now consumes 15.3 gigabytes a month, up 16.2% on last year. And total data traffic on the network expanded by 30.1%.

Smartphones on MTN’s network rose 12.4%, taking smartphone penetration to 66%.

Home broadband is becoming a bigger part of the story too. MTN’s fibre-to-the-home service — a fibre cable running directly into a home — now carries about 13% of all data traffic. Toriola said MTN now leads that market, and the service frees up capacity on the mobile network.

“Every day, millions of people trust MTN to help them work, learn, run their businesses and stay connected. As that demand grows, our responsibility is to keep investing so the network can meet it,” Toriola said.

He also acknowledged that fibre cuts and other damage to infrastructure still interrupt service.

More customers across every service

MTN Nigeria’s total subscriber base grew 10.9% to 94.7 million, up from 85.4 million in September 2025. That gives the company a huge base of customers to sell data, digital and financial services to.

Voice calls — the company’s original business — still grew, but far more slowly than data. Voice revenue rose 11.1% to about ₦1.50 trillion, supported by more subscribers, although customers are spending less time on voice calls as they move to data-based calls and messaging.

Digital revenue, which includes rich media services and mobile advertising, rose 24% to ₦88.3 billion, and growth sped up to 30.6% in the third quarter. Enterprise revenue — services sold to businesses, such as bulk text messaging and fixed connections — rose 6.5%.

Fintech: mobile money booms, but overall revenue falls

MTN Nigeria’s financial technology business, built around its MoMo mobile-money service, gave a mixed picture.

The core mobile-money business did very well. Revenue from core mobile-money services more than doubled, rising 102.2%. The main reason was higher “float income” — the interest MTN earns on the money customers hold in their MoMo wallets. Customer wallet balances more than quadrupled to ₦43.8 billion from December 2025.

But overall fintech revenue fell 25.9% to ₦97.5 billion. The reason was a suspension of MTN’s airtime and data credit service between April and June 2026. That service lets customers borrow airtime or data and pay later, and its suspension took a large chunk out of fintech income.

The service has since resumed under a new model involving several partners, and it is recovering. Revenue from airtime and data credit rose 78.5% in the third quarter compared with the second quarter.

Another big change came in August 2026, when MoMo PSB — MTN’s payment service bank — moved to a new Alipay+ platform, which MTN said was more reliable, had more features and was more secure.

Monthly active users of MoMo stood at 3.2 million at the end of the third quarter, and transaction volumes rose 69.1% quarter on quarter.

How profit grew faster than sales

The most important part of the results is that profit rose much faster than sales, because MTN held its costs down while revenue grew.

Operating expenses — the day-to-day costs of running the business — rose only 8.5% to ₦1.42 trillion, far below the 23.7% growth in service revenue. The cost of sales rose 12.6% to ₦566.5 billion, while depreciation and amortisation — the accounting cost of wear and tear on network equipment — rose 32.6% to ₦631.9 billion, reflecting the heavy investment in the network.

The result was a sharp rise in operating profit. EBITDA rose 36.8% to ₦2.62 trillion, up from ₦1.92 trillion a year earlier. The EBITDA margin widened by 5.5 percentage points to 56.9%, up from 51.4% — in plain terms, MTN kept nearly 57 kobo as operating profit from every naira of service revenue.

Finance costs helped too. Net finance costs fell 25.3% to ₦277 billion, helped by lower borrowings, and MTN recorded a net foreign exchange gain of ₦80.1 billion, up from ₦55.6 billion a year earlier.

Toriola said an efficiency programme continued to widen profit margins and strengthen cash generation despite pressure from energy costs.

Investing and paying shareholders at the same time

MTN spent heavily on its network while also paying large dividends to shareholders, and still ended the period with cash in hand.

Capital expenditure excluding leases — money spent on masts, fibre, equipment and other long-term assets — rose 14.2% to ₦864.8 billion, up from ₦757.4 billion a year earlier. That is equal to 18.7% of revenue, which MTN said was within its target range. Investment sped up in the third quarter as the company pushed ahead with its 2026 network rollout.

At the same time, the company paid ₦860.8 billion in dividends, covering the 2025 final dividend and the 2026 interim dividend. Chief Financial Officer Modupe Kadri said MTN had paid about ₦861 billion in dividends during the period alongside its large investment programme, and the company still held a net cash position of ₦47.7 billion at the end of September 2026, down from ₦104.8 billion in December 2025.

“We are growing, investing, strengthening profitability and rewarding shareholders simultaneously,” Kadri said. He added that the company kept a positive net cash position despite the spending, and said: “Sustainable value creation requires more than strong earnings. It demands financial discipline, customer trust and the courage to invest for the long term.”

The company’s borrowings are entirely in naira and carry fixed interest rates. That matters because it removes two risks: the debt does not grow if the naira weakens against the dollar, and the interest bill does not rise if interest rates go up. “Our balance sheet is strong, with borrowings fully naira-denominated and at fixed rates, eliminating foreign currency and floating-rate exposure on our debt,” Toriola said.

What comes next

MTN Nigeria has repeated its medium-term guidance — its published targets for the years ahead. It expects service revenue to grow by at least the low-20% range on average, and its EBITDA margin to stay in the mid-to-high-50% range. Toriola said the nine-month figures sat comfortably within that guidance.

The company’s priorities for the final quarter of 2026 are to keep revenue growing, protect its profit margins, expand home broadband, and rebuild momentum in fintech. In fintech, it aims to finish moving customers to the new MoMo platform and restore the airtime and data credit business to expected levels by the end of November 2026.

MTN also said work to separate its fintech business into a standalone structure was progressing, although it still needs approval from regulators.

Management said it would keep watching energy costs, inflation, foreign exchange movements, pricing and customer affordability, and Toriola said the company was entering the final quarter with confidence and on course to meet its targets.

What this means for customers

For the 94.7 million people on MTN Nigeria’s network, the results point to heavy spending on the network they use every day.

More investment in masts, fibre and capacity should mean faster data and fewer dropped connections, although fibre cuts and power problems remain a challenge the company itself has acknowledged. The growth of fibre-to-the-home gives households a faster option than mobile data alone, and it takes pressure off the mobile network for everyone else.

The recovery of the airtime and data credit service matters to customers who rely on borrowing small amounts of airtime or data between top-ups. MTN says it aims to have that service back to normal levels by the end of November 2026. For MoMo users, the move to the new Alipay+ platform is meant to bring a more reliable service with more features.

For shareholders, the results show a company that is growing, investing and paying dividends at the same time, with earnings per share of ₦55.60 and free cash flow of ₦1.17 trillion.

Frequently asked questions

How much profit did MTN Nigeria make in the first nine months of 2026?

MTN Nigeria made a profit after tax of ₦1.17 trillion for the nine months ended 30 September 2026, up 55.3% from ₦750.2 billion in the same period of 2025. Profit before tax rose 59.4% to ₦1.80 trillion.

Why did MTN Nigeria’s profit grow faster than its revenue?

Service revenue grew 23.7%, but profit grew 55.3%, because costs rose much more slowly than sales. Operating expenses rose only 8.5%, net finance costs fell 25.3%, and the company recorded a net foreign exchange gain of ₦80.1 billion. That pushed the EBITDA margin up to 56.9%.

What is driving MTN Nigeria’s growth?

Mobile data is the main driver. Data revenue rose 35.8% to ₦2.68 trillion, active data users grew to 57.2 million, and the average user now consumes 15.3 gigabytes a month. Voice revenue grew only 11.1%, while digital revenue rose 24% and enterprise revenue rose 6.5%.

How many subscribers does MTN Nigeria have?

MTN Nigeria had 94.7 million subscribers at the end of September 2026, up 10.9% from 85.4 million a year earlier. Of those, 57.2 million were active data users, and MoMo had 3.2 million monthly active users.

Why did MTN Nigeria’s fintech revenue fall even though mobile money doubled?

Core mobile-money revenue rose 102.2%, but overall fintech revenue fell 25.9% to ₦97.5 billion because the airtime and data credit service was suspended between April and June 2026. The service has resumed under a new multi-partner model, and its revenue rose 78.5% in the third quarter compared with the second quarter.

What are MTN Nigeria’s targets for the rest of 2026?

MTN expects service revenue growth of at least the low-20% range and an EBITDA margin in the mid-to-high-50% range. Its priorities are sustaining revenue growth, protecting margins, expanding home broadband, rebuilding fintech momentum, and restoring the airtime and data credit service by the end of November 2026.

Conclusion

MTN Nigeria’s nine-month results for 2026 show a company being reshaped by data. Nigerians are using more mobile internet than ever — 57.2 million active data users, each consuming 15.3 gigabytes a month on average — and MTN is turning that demand into profit, with earnings up 55.3% to ₦1.17 trillion.

The profit jump came from discipline as well as higher sales: costs rose far more slowly than revenue, finance costs fell, and naira-only, fixed-rate debt shielded MTN from currency swings — while it spent ₦864.8 billion on its network and paid ₦860.8 billion in dividends.

The weak spot is fintech, where overall revenue fell despite mobile money more than doubling, because of the suspension of the airtime credit service earlier in the year. Whether MTN can restore that service and complete the MoMo platform migration by the end of November will be the clearest test of its final-quarter plans.

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.

Sources

• https://newscentraltv.com/mtn-nigerias-profit-rises-55-to-n1-17-trillion/ (News Central TV, 31 October 2026)
• https://abujapolitico.com/mtn-nigeria-reports-n1-2tn-profit-as-revenue-rises-23-7-in-nine-months/ (Abuja Politico, 31 October 2026)
• https://newsmediang.com/mtn-nigeria-posts-%E2%82%A61-2trn-profit-in-nine-months-as-revenue-hits-%E2%82%A64-6trn-subscribers-rise-to-94-7m/ (NewsMediaNG, 31 October 2026)