MTN Group Reports 21.1% Revenue Growth in Q1 as Nigeria and Ghana Drive Continental Performance
Looking ahead, MTN said it remains focused on sustaining growth in data and fintech, improving performance in South Africa, and navigating macroeconomic risks including inflation, currency volatility and geopolitical tensions.
MTN Group Limited released its quarterly update for the period ended 31 March 2026, reporting strong operational and financial performance across its African markets despite ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. The Group, which states its purpose as “Leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress,” now serves 312.7 million customers across 19 markets.
The Group delivered robust growth in the first quarter of 2026, with sustained commercial momentum driven mainly by Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon. Service revenue increased by 20.0% (21.1% in constant currency), supported by strong data and fintech performance. Data revenue rose by 36.1%, while fintech revenue grew by 22.4%. EBITDA margins expanded to 47.6%, an increase of 3.0 percentage points, reflecting improved efficiency and cost control. Subscriber numbers rose 5.4% to 312.7 million, while active data users increased 8.7% to 175.6 million.
Fintech continued to be a major growth driver, with transaction volumes increasing by 15.8% to 6.3 billion and transaction value rising 32.8% to US$163 billion. Active Mobile Money monthly users increased 8.2% to 67.4 million. Data traffic also grew strongly, up 20.2% to 6,827 petabytes, reflecting rising digital adoption across MTN’s footprint.
“MTN Group has reported a strong overall performance and resilient financial results despite an uncertain geopolitical and macro-economic environment. We have concluded the first quarter of executing on our new Ambition 2030 strategy solidly with our operations delivering both service revenue growth and EBITDA margin expansion. Driven by our purpose of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress, we invested capex of R9.6 billion to sustain the quality, coverage and capacity of our networks and to remain the platforms of choice for consumers, homes and businesses. Capex intensity of 16.4% was in line with prior period levels.”
– Ralph Mupita, Group President and CEO, MTN Group
Operationally, MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana were key contributors to growth, alongside strong performances in Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire. Nigeria delivered service revenue growth of 41.7% (constant currency), while Ghana grew 35.7%. MTN South Africa, however, recorded slower growth of 0.7% due to competitive pressure in the prepaid segment, though postpaid and enterprise segments remained resilient.
The Group highlighted continued progress in its strategic initiatives under Ambition 2030, particularly in fintech structural separation and digital infrastructure expansion. MTN Ghana completed the structural separation of its fintech business, while MTN Nigeria secured shareholder approval for similar restructuring. The Group also advanced its proposed acquisition of IHS, aimed at strengthening its position in digital infrastructure across Africa.
Financial discipline remained strong, with net debt to EBITDA at 0.2x and HoldCo liquidity headroom at R42.6 billion. The Group also upstreamed significant cash from Nigeria and Ghana post-quarter end, reinforcing balance sheet flexibility.
“A more supportive macroeconomic and foreign exchange backdrop in key markets like Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda supported accelerated investment to meet robust demand and to capture the future opportunities we have identified. While the average exchange rates of the currencies of most of our markets were weaker against the rand, the average naira was stronger over the period. Blended inflation for the Group has moderated to average 8.9% in Q1, from 15.1% a year earlier.”
– Ralph Mupita, Group President and CEO, MTN Group
Looking ahead, MTN said it remains focused on sustaining growth in data and fintech, improving performance in South Africa, and navigating macroeconomic risks including inflation, currency volatility and geopolitical tensions. The Group reaffirmed its medium-term guidance and emphasized disciplined capital allocation, operational efficiency, and continued investment in network and digital platforms to support long-term growth across Africa.
