Victor EzejaMTN Nigeria Plc’s data revenue increased by 69.2 percent to N1.23 trillion in the first half of 2025, up from N727.33 billion in 2024.
This, according to analysts, is driven by a recent tariff hike, active user base growth, and increased data consumption.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelKarl Toriola, CEO of MTN Nigeria, stated that commercial momentum drove broad-based revenue growth across core segments such as data, voice, digital services, and fintech.
Toriola attributed the data revenue increase to active user base growth, increased data traffic, and price changes.
“Underpinning the growth is the ongoing investment in network capacity to accommodate increased traffic and enhance user experience, as well as higher smartphone penetration.”
He said data traffic increased by 41.2 percent, while average usage per subscriber increased by 26.3% year on year to 13.2GB.
“We added approximately 3.7 million smartphones to the network in H1, increasing smartphone penetration to 62.6%, up 4.3 percentage points from December 2024. 4G population coverage remained stable at 82.4%, with efforts continuing to focus on capacity enhancement to reduce network congestion,” he said.
Toriola stated that the company achieved broad-based revenue growth across the voice, data, digital, and fintech segments, with service revenue increasing by 54.6 percent year on year, owing to strong demand and the full impact of price adjustments.
He stated that cost pressures were alleviated by the revised IHS tower lease agreement, relative naira stability, and continued progress in our underlying expense reduction initiatives.
According to him, as a result, EBITDA increased by 119.5 percent to N1.2 trillion, with the EBITDA margin increasing by 15.0 percentage points to 50.6 percent (Q2 2025: up 21.8 points to 53.8%).
“We reported a PAT of N414.9 billion, a significant improvement from the N519.1 billion loss after tax recorded the previous year. This turnaround reflects the successful implementation of the five strategic priorities identified at the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on April 30, 2024, to address the negative shareholders’ funds.
“As a result, our retained earnings improved to negative N192.9 billion (December 2024: negative N607.5 billion), and shareholders’ equity to negative N42.5 billion (December 2024: negative N458.0 billion).
“This positive trajectory reinforces the significant progress made toward reestablishing a positive net asset position by the end of Q3. We generated a positive free cash flow of N409.8 billion, up 18.0 percent, demonstrating disciplined capital allocation and strong cash generation as the impact of the tariff increase is felt.
“We anticipate a moderation in our capex profile in H2 to align with our full-year objective, which should support a stronger free cash flow recovery in the second half,” he stated.
According to Toriola, voice revenue increased by 40.3% due to a growing subscriber base, price adjustments, and a continued focus on customer value management initiatives.
According to him, these factors helped maintain momentum in the voice segment despite an industrywide directive limiting third-party agents to one SIM registration per customer, which slowed gross additions during the period.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
