MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita has said the worst should be over for the company as its Nigeria unit recovers, after a naira devaluation pushed the group to an annual pre-tax loss of R4.4-billion.
Nigeria has suffered chronic dollar shortages that have forced authorities to devalue the naira as part of the government’s measures to stabilise the currency and attract investment.
Coupled with high inflation and interest rates, this has driven up costs and widened MTN Nigeria’s pre-tax loss by more than 200% to ₦550.3-billion (R6.4-billion).
At group level, South Africa-headquartered MTN reported a loss before tax of R4.4-billion in the year to 31 December, from a 2023 profit of R12.2-billion.
The Nigeria business has a number of initiatives aimed at restoring profit and addressing its position when liabilities exceed assets, including renegotiating tower leases and a tariff hike, which was approved in January.
“That pain which we’ve had for 18 months, is abating somewhat … the business is growing very strongly. So I’m actually very bullish and confident that we’ll see strong recovery in Nigeria,” Mupita said in a media call.
MTN Group, which has 291 million customers across 16 markets in Africa, saved R3.8-billion in costs, with R1.2-billion coming from the renegotiated tower leases, said chief financial officer Tsholofelo Molefe.
Sudan conflict
In Sudan, the group’s operational and financial performance was hampered by the armed conflict in the country, resulting in impairments of R11.7-billion.
Mupita said that MTN has “started to see sites coming back on air” in areas where there was ongoing conflict such as in the capital Khartoum, where its network was down since April 2023.
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“If you look at the underlying performance, which is service revenue at constant currency, it does look strong. The management team is executing well,” said Peter Takaendesa, head of equities at Mergence Investment Managers. “The challenge is just those macro and currency issues, which they really have limited control over.”
Group service revenue decreased by 15% to R177.8-billion but rose 14% in constant currency terms. — (c) 2025 Reuters