MTN Nigeria’s revenue growth picked up again in the third quarter after a sharp slowdown in the three months to June, but its fintech business is still recovering from the suspension of its airtime lending service.
Service revenue rose 19.7% year on year to ₦1.61-trillion in the three months to September, up from 13.2% growth in the second quarter. Growth accelerated each month, reaching 21.6% in September. For the nine months, service revenue rose 23.7% to ₦4.6-trillion.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) rose 32.8% to ₦951-billion in the quarter, and the Ebitda margin widened by 5.8 percentage points to 58.7%. Profit after tax rose 36.5% to ₦457.6-billion.
MTN Nigeria is the biggest operation in JSE-listed MTN Group, whose wholly owned subsidiary MTN International (Mauritius) holds 73.39% of it.
“We delivered a very strong third quarter, reversing the temporary slowdown in Q2,” CEO Karl 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 revenue rose 31.4% to ₦981.4-billion in the quarter and voice revenue 9.3% to ₦503.3-billion. Subscribers increased 10.9% to 94.7 million and active data users 12% to 57.2 million. Active data users consumed an average of 17.2GB/month in the third quarter.
The quarter’s growth was just below the company’s medium-term guidance of average service revenue growth of “at least low-20%”, but the nine-month figure is within it. MTN Nigeria reaffirmed that guidance, along with an Ebitda margin “in the mid-to-high-50% range”.
Fintech still hurting
Fintech revenue fell 58.1% to ₦20.3-billion in the quarter, and 25.9% to ₦97.5-billion for the nine months. MTN Nigeria blamed the suspension of its airtime and data credit service between April and June.
The service has since resumed “under a new multi-partner model”, and its revenue rose 78.5% on the second quarter. MTN Nigeria said it aims to sustain the service’s recovery “to expected levels by the end of November 2026”.
The results don’t name the partners. JSE-listed Optasia, which provides airtime credit to MTN customers, restarted the XtraTime service on 24 June, and its own targets already point to a slower second half.
Credit losses also rose. MTN Nigeria’s expected credit loss charge on trade receivables rose to ₦15-billion for the nine months, from ₦2.4-billion, “mainly attributable to the reassessment of XtraTime receivables”.
Its mobile money bank, MoMo PSB, moved to a new Alipay+ platform in August, following MTN’s deal with Alipay’s owner to turn MoMo into a super app. The switch has cost it wallets. Active MoMo wallets fell to 3.2 million at the end of September from 3.8 million at the end of 2025, after legacy wallets were deactivated. Measured on the new platform only, monthly active users were 3.2 million, up 11.6% year on year.
Wallet balances more than quadrupled to ₦43.8-billion from December, helping core mobile money revenue more than double. The planned structural separation of the fintech business from MTN Nigeria, approved by shareholders in April, still awaits regulatory approval.
Cash flows to Johannesburg
MTN Nigeria paid ₦859.7-billion in dividends in the nine months: a final dividend of ₦15/share for 2025 and an interim dividend of ₦26/share, against ₦5/share a year earlier. MTN International (Mauritius) received ₦655.6-billion, excluding withholding tax. That’s about US$490-million at the end-September exchange rate.
The payouts mark a turnaround from 2024, when foreign exchange losses pushed MTN Nigeria’s total equity into negative territory. Equity stood at ₦843.9-billion at the end of September, against minus ₦458-billion at the start of 2025.
MTN Nigeria has repaid all its foreign currency debt, and its borrowings are now fully in naira at fixed rates. A stronger naira, at ₦1 329/$ at the end of September against ₦1 475 a year earlier, produced a net foreign exchange gain of ₦80.1-billion for the nine months. – (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
