MTN Nigeria has bounced back. After a turbulent 2024 marked by currency shocks and balance sheet strain, the telecoms giant is back in the black- reporting a profit after tax of ?414.9 billion for the first half of 2025. This sharp turnaround from last year's loss of over ?500 billion is more than a recovery story. It is a statement of intent.
At the heart of the performance is a surge in service revenue, up 54.6 year-on-year to ?2.4 trillion. Data services led the charge, contributing more than half of that, powered by strong user growth and increased smartphone penetration. With 3.7 million new smartphones added to its network and data traffic up by 41, MTN is clearly feeding Nigeria's hunger for high-speed connectivity.
Voice revenue also held up-rising 40.3-despite new SIM registration rules that briefly slowed subscriber growth. Still, MTN added 3.8 million mobile subscribers, bringing its total to 84.7 million, while active data users climbed to 51 million.
The results also show just how much MTN is betting on Nigeria's digital future. Capital expenditure more than tripled excluding leases, reaching ?565.7 billion, with a large slice going into expanding network capacity, rolling out fibre-to-the-home, and launching the first phase of the Dabengwa Tier III Data Centre-an ambitious project set to become West Africa's largest.
