MTN Nigeria Communications Plc Group financial results for the nine months ended 30 September 2026 showed service revenue up 23.7% to N4.6 trillion as Profit after tax (PAT) rose 55.30 percent to N1.16 trillion, from N750.20 billion as at September 2025.
Karl Toriola, Chief Executive Officer, said:
“We delivered a very strong third quarter, reversing the temporary slowdown in Q2. Service revenue grew 19.7% (8.4% QoQ), with growth accelerating each month to 21.6% in September. Profitability grew even faster: Q3 EBITDA rose 32.8% (12.5% QoQ) and the EBITDA margin widened by 5.8pp to 58.7%. For the nine months, service revenue grew 23.7% with an EBITDA margin of 56.9%. Both are comfortably within the guidance of ‘at least low-20%’ revenue growth and a ‘mid-to-high-50%’ margin. 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. In fintech, core mobile money revenue more than doubled, up 102.2%, while our airtime and data credit service continued to recover following its resumption under a multi-partner model, with revenue up 78.5% on Q2.”
MTN Nigeria delivered Free cash flow of N1.2 trillion, up 57.5%, reflecting strong cash generation.
The cash generation was underpinned by higher earnings and disciplined capital allocation, delivered alongside continued network investment and supporting shareholder returns.
Data drives revenue growth
MTN Nigeria has maintained consistent revenue growth as it takes advantage of the country’s growing young population that crave for consumption. Interestingly, data was the main contributor to growth, supported by voice, digital services and home broadband.
The company’s total revenue increased by 23.60 percent to N4.61 trillion the first nine month of 2026, from N3.73 trillion as at September 2025.
Data revenue rose 35.8% (Q3 2026: 31.4%), driven by growing digital adoption across our base. Active data users increased by 12.0% to 57.2 million, and average monthly usage per active data user grew by 16.2% to 15.3GB for the nine months (Q3 2026: 17.2GB), lifting network data traffic by 30.1%.
Smartphones on MTN’s network rose 12.4% YoY as customers upgraded to 4G- and 5G-capable devices, bringing smartphone penetration to 66.0%, up 0.9pp YoY.
Home broadband is becoming an increasingly important contributor to growth, supported by MTN’s leadership position in the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) market. FTTH now carries approximately 13% of total data traffic, helping to free up capacity on the mobile network while enhancing the efficiency and scalability of the network.
Voice revenue grew by 11.1% (Q3 2026: 9.3%), supported by a 10.9% increase in mobile subscribers to 94.7 million and targeted propositions, which offset softer usage per subscriber as customers shift towards data.
Digital revenue increased by 24.0% and accelerated to 30.6% growth in Q3. Growth was led by rich media services and mobile advertising.
Enterprise revenue increased by 6.5%, led by bulk SMS, fixed connectivity and converged services, supported by the acquisition of high-quality customers.
In fintech, the core mobile money business continued to scale, with revenue up 102.2%, driven mainly by higher float income as wallet balances more than quadrupled to N43.8 billion from December 2025.
In August 2026, MoMo PSB moved to its new Alipay+ platform. Built for reliability and scale, it offers a richer, more feature-packed and secure customer experience, giving MoMo PSB the foundation to become a scaled digital financial services platform. Monthly active users at the end of Q3 were 3.2 million.
Strong balance sheet means strength and resilience
MTN Nigeria closed the period with a net cash position of N47.7 billion, compared to N104.80 billion as at December 2025, after paying N860.8 billion in dividends, covering the full-year (FY) 2025 final and 2026 interim, and increasing network investment.
The company’s interest earned exceeded the interest payable on borrowings, resulting in a net interest income position and underscoring the strength of the balance sheet, which remains fully naira-denominated and fixed-rate.
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