MTN Nigeria Communications PLC generated ₦4.7 trillion in total revenue for the nine months ended September 2026, driven by an expanding customer base and increased digital service adoption across the country. According to a corporate filing submitted to the Nigerian Exchange Group on Friday, the telecommunications provider's financial results reflect a 23.7% growth compared to the corresponding reporting period in 2025, rebounding strongly from earlier quarterly slowdowns.
Following corporate tax payments amounting to ₦630.5 million during the nine- month window, MTN Nigeria posted a profit after tax of ₦1.17 trillion, representing a 55.3% year-on-year increase. The profit after tax margin expanded by 5.1 percentage points to settle at 25.3%, demonstrating improved operational efficiency despite broader macroeconomic challenges.
What drove the financial growth?
Company Chief Executive Officer Karl Toriola attributed the positive financial trajectory to a larger subscriber base, intensified data consumption, and rising demand for home broadband services. These gains were further reinforced by sustained capital investments in network infrastructure, capacity expansion, and service delivery.
Data revenue emerged as a major growth catalyst, jumping by 35.8% to reach ₦2.68 trillion and accounting for slightly more than half of the company's total earnings. Active data subscribers expanded by 12.0% to hit 57.2 million, while average monthly consumption per data user grew by 16.2% to 15.3GB.
Smartphone penetration on the network advanced to 66.0%, with connected devices rising by 12.4% as customers increasingly transitioned to 4G and 5G hardware. Simultaneously, home broadband solutions such as FibreX gained traction, contributing to offloaded mobile traffic and catering to households, remote professionals, and corporate establishments.
How did voice revenue and operational costs fare?
Voice revenue grew by 11.1% to ₦1.5 trillion, underpinned by a 10.9% rise in mobile subscribers to 94.7 million, maintaining its role as a secondary yet reliable contributor to overall turnover. Meanwhile, capital expenditure excluding leases rose 14.2% to ₦864.8 billion, with deployment accelerating notably in the third quarter.
Operational expenditures faced upward pressure, primarily driven by escalating energy expenses required to power telecommunication towers nationwide. These energy cost burdens contributed to a projected 9.6% increase in operational costs to ₦2 trillion for the full year 2026, compared to ₦1.8 trillion in 2025.
Despite inflationary and energy pressures, management highlighted a resilient balance sheet characterized by fully naira-denominated and fixed-rate borrowings, effectively insulating the firm from foreign exchange volatility on its debt portfolio. A relatively stabilized foreign exchange rate at the close of September 2026 also yielded a net foreign exchange gain of ₦80.1 billion.