MTN South Africa Holds Steady Performance While Earnings and Prepaid Revenue Come Under Pressure

MTN South Africa  has delivered a resilient performance in the first nine months of 2025, navigating intense competitive pressures while maintaining its leadership in network quality. The company reported a 2.0% increase in service revenue, driven largely by strong growth in the enterprise and postpaid segments, even as digital and fintech revenues faced headwinds.

Data revenue grew by 5.0%, contributing 48.8% of total service revenue, supported by a 1.7% increase in active data subscribers to 22.0 million and a 24.7% rise in data traffic. Average usage per active postpaid data subscriber increased 13.4% year-on-year to 24.9GB, while prepaid subscribers recorded an average monthly usage of 4.1GB, up 27.0% from the prior year.

The consumer postpaid segment continued to perform well, with service revenue up 4.0% and accelerating to 4.7% in the third quarter. This growth reflected the expansion of the customer base and increased data usage, supported by postpaid price adjustments implemented earlier in the year. In addition, MTN SA’s Home proposition saw strong adoption, with the FWA and fibre customer base growing by 30% to 344,000, bolstered by attractive offerings such as Shesh@5G.

In contrast, prepaid service revenue declined slightly by 1.7%, as the segment faced ongoing competition and pressure on data monetisation. Voice revenue fell by 2.8% year-on-year, largely due to lower performance in the prepaid segment, although postpaid customers contributed to voice growth of 4.4%. Wholesale revenue rose by 1.3%, supported by continued data growth, while enterprise revenue maintained strong momentum, increasing 12.3% and accelerating to 13.6% in the third quarter, driven by bulk SMS, connectivity, and converged solutions.

Digital services revenue declined by 2.7%, impacted by lower prepaid recharges and reductions in content value-added services, though mobile advertising continued to grow strongly. Fintech revenue also decreased by 5.1%, reflecting slower Xtratime growth, while MTN SA’s MoMo business continued to expand, supported by InsurTech initiatives.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 4.8%, with the margin declining by 0.6 percentage points to 35.8%. Capital expenditure reached R6.0 billion on an IFRS 16 reported basis, reflecting continued investment in network infrastructure.

Looking ahead, MTN South Africa plans to strengthen its prepaid offerings through targeted regional and personalised bundle pricing, channel optimisation, and product refinement. The postpaid segment will build on momentum in Home connectivity, scaling FWA and fibre-to-the-home penetration. Operational efficiency initiatives, including device financing and network sharing, are underway and are expected to contribute to medium-term growth. While the prepaid market may remain under pressure in the short term, MTN SA remains well-positioned to sustain performance across its key segments.