MTN comeback

MTN’s financial performance during the first half of 2025 (H1 2025) was impressive, with service revenue and subscribers surging in two of its biggest markets.

For the six months ending 30 June 2025, MTN Group’s service increased by 23.2% to R105.1 billion. On a constant currency basis, the figure increased 22.4%.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) also jumped 60.6% from R29.05 billion to R46.66 billion.

Total subscribers increased by 4.7% to 297.7 million, including active data subscribers and mobile money monthly active users climbing 10.3% to 164.4 million and 1.8% to 63.2 million, respectively.

MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita said the improvements were supported by improved macroeconomic conditions, characterised by greater stability in inflation and foreign exchange rates in key markets.

“Blended average inflation across the Group was 14%, moderating slightly in Q2 to 13.8%, with lower inflation in the period in South Africa, Nigeria, and Ghana, our largest markets,” Mupita said.

“This supported an easing of interest rates in some markets, which also helped to alleviate the pressure on consumer spending power and business costs.”

The company also spent substantially more on upgrading its network to provide better network quality and capacity, with capital expenditure increasing 42.04% to R27.3 billion.

MTN’s biggest market by revenue and customers — Nigeria — contributed 37.5% more service revenue than over the same period last year.

“The Nigerian naira exhibited greater stability against the US dollar in the first half, particularly when compared to H2 2024,” Mupita said.

“The approval of price adjustments in Nigeria, which were phased in during the period, largely benefiting Q2, boosted MTN Nigeria and the Group’s service revenue expansion.

MTN’s Ghana operations saw an even bigger improvement, with service revenue jumping 100.2% from R10.33 billion to R20.67 billion.

Similar to the surge in Nigeria, a part of the Ghanaian cedi strengthened year-to-date in H1 against both our reporting currency, the rand, and the US dollar.

The substantial growth means that the West African country is coming close to South Africa in terms of service revenue.

Struggling in South Africa

On its home turf, MTN’s service revenue inched up 2.3% from R21.11 billion to R21.60 billion, supported primarily by its postpaid, wholesale, and enterprise segments.

However, Ebitda shrank 3.6% from R9.57 billion to R9.22 billion. The networks said its performance in South Africa was “resilient” but acknowledged that its prepaid segment was facing competitive pressure.

“While inflation remained low in the period and interest rates were reduced, the South African economy recorded modest growth (GDP up 0.1% in Q1),” MTN said.

“Consumer confidence remained muted during the first half overall, though showed some improvement in Q2 2025.”

Mobile data traffic continued to grow substantially, with a 23% increase from H1 2024. Data revenues contributed 48.5% of MTN South Africa’s total service revenue during, up from 47.6% in H1 2024.

The average postpaid MTN South Africa customers consumed 24.5GB in a month, an increase of 11.8% from the previous period.

“A significant portion of this growth was driven by the increasing adoption of fixed wireless access (FWA), as more customers embrace home connectivity solutions,” MTN said.

“FWA delivered a pleasing performance with strong revenue growth, driven by higher traffic volumes and a 29.6% increase in subscribers.”

MTN prepaid data users consumed 3.9GB data per month, up by 25.5% from H1 2024.

MTN South Africa subscribers increased by 3.3% to 39.8 million, with postpaid customers growing 4.2% to 4.4 million and prepaid users rising by 1.7% to 29.5 million.

The table below compares key financial metrics from MTN’s H1 2024 and H1 2025 results.

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