The first half of 2025 saw MTN Nigeria earn a net profit of N414.9 billion, a strong and dramatic turnaround from the N519.1 billion deficit in the first half of 2024.
According to MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola, “the macroeconomic conditions in Nigeria showed notable improvements (six months to June 30), including a relatively stable naira, improved foreign exchange (forex) liquidity, and easing inflationary pressures.”
This comes after a period of recent economic volatility in which some South African businesses experienced losses connected to foreign exchange, particularly from their activities in Nigeria.
“We produced robust growth in service revenue (56% year-on-year), building on momentum from the first quarter.” Strong demand, aggressive customer value management, and pricing adjustments, particularly in the second quarter, were the key drivers of this. We increased our network investment to increase capacity in order to reinforce this,” he stated during Thursday’s interim results announcement.
He said that they were keeping up their efficiency efforts to hasten the company’s return to profitability.
The group is still “firmly on track to restore our balance sheet to a positive net asset position by the end of the third quarter,” he added, adding that the guidance for the 2025 full financial year was increased due to the excellent first-half performance.
In terms of regulations, an industry guideline was put into place that limits third-party agents to one SIM registration per client, with the exception of agents who have been designated as strategic partners. While the gross connection growth rate may be momentarily slowed, SIM registration quality would increase, which would benefit the industry’s overall expansion.
Notwithstanding the effects of the new SIM registration rules implemented in the first quarter, the number of mobile users increased to 84.7 million, with a net gain of 3.8 million in the first half.
Data traffic increased by 41.2% year over year, driven by a 3.3 million rise in active data users to over 51 million.
The second quarter was significantly improved by the phased implementation of new price changes for voice and data bundles.
According to him, “the demand for our services remained resilient, which supported strong service revenue growth in the period.”
The $240 million Dabengwa Tier 3 Data Center’s first phase was opened in July 2025. The multiphase data center project will grow to be the biggest in West Africa.
The group was granted permission by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to enter into a nationwide roaming contract with Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services (9Mobile).
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To further market inclusion and the NCC’s goal of a Nigeria that is completely linked. In this regard, we have started the onboarding process for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) on our network,” Tariola stated.
Approximately 562,000 new users joined the fintech strategy in the second quarter, increasing the total number of active wallets to 2.7 million.
He said that by using our partner network to draw in more high-value users, we were able to continuously increase customer deposits, which by June 2025 had nearly quadrupled from December 2024.
The amended IHS tower lease arrangement, relative naira stability, and advancements in efficiency initiatives all helped to lessen cost constraints. EBITDA, or earnings before interest tax, depreciation, and amortization, increased by 119.5% to N1.2 trillion. By the end of 2024, retained earnings had improved from negative N607.5 billion to negative N192.9 billion.
A more stable macroeconomic and regulatory environment, ongoing demand for our services, the advantages of recent price adjustments, and network investments will all help us maintain strong operational and financial growth momentum in the second half, he stated.
