MTN Nigeria Data Revenue Hits N1.23trn Amid Tariff Hike

MTN Nigeria Plc’s data revenue rose by 69.2 per cent to N1.23trn in the first half of 2025 from N 727.33bn in 2024, driven by a recent hike in tariffs, active user base growth and higher data consumption.

The company, during the period under review, received regulatory approval for price adjustments.

The Chief Executive Officer of the telecom firm, Karl Toriola, said the commercial momentum drove broad-based revenue growth across core segments, including data, voice, digital services and fintech.

He noted that data revenue rose by 69.2 per cent, supported by active user base growth, higher data traffic and price adjustments.

“Underpinning the growth is the ongoing investment in network capacity to accommodate increased traffic and enhance user experience, as well as higher smartphone penetration. Data traffic grew by 41.2 per cent, while the average usage per subscriber increased by 26.3 per cent YoY to 13.2GB.

“We added approximately 3.7 million smartphones to the network in H1, raising smartphone penetration to 62.6 per cent, up 4.3pp from December 2024. 4G population coverage remained stable at 82.4 per cent, as efforts continued to focus on capacity enhancement to reduce congestion in the network,” he said.

Toriola stated that the company achieved broad-based revenue growth across voice, data, digital, and fintech segments adding that service revenue increased by 54.6 per cent YoY, supported by strong demand and the full effect of the price adjustments.

He noted that cost pressures were mitigated through the revised IHS tower lease agreement, relative naira stability and sustained progress in our underlying expense efficiency initiatives.

According to him, as a result, EBITDA rose by 119.5 per cent to N1.2trn, with the EBITDA margin expanding by 15.0pp to 50.6 per cent (Q2 2025: up 21.8pp to 53.8 per cent).

“We reported a PAT of N414.9 billion, marking a strong recovery from the loss after tax of N519.1bn recorded in the prior year. This turnaround reflects the successful delivery of the five strategic priorities outlined at the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held on 30 April 2024 to address the negative shareholders’ funds.

“Consequently, our retained earnings improved to negative N192.9bn (December 2024: negative N607.5bn) and shareholders’ equity to negative N42.5bn (December 2024: negative N458.0bn).

“This positive trajectory reinforces the meaningful progress towards restoring a positive net asset position by the end of Q3. We achieved a positive free cash flow of N409.8bn, up 18.0 per cent, demonstrating disciplined capital allocation and strong cash generation as the impact of the tariff increase is realised.

“We anticipate a moderation in our capex profile in H2 to align with our full-year objective, which should support a stronger free cash flow recovery in the second half,” he said.

Toriola noted that voice revenue increased by 40.3 per cent, driven by a growing subscriber base, price adjustments, and the continued focus on customer value management initiatives.

These factors according to him helped sustain momentum in the voice segment despite an industrywide directive limiting third-party agents to one SIM registration per customer, which slowed gross additions during the period.