MTN Group increased service revenue by nearly a quarter to R218bn in its 2025 financial year, led by strong performances from MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana.
Image: Timothy Bernard/Independent Newspapers
MTN Group’s efforts to woo back investors by announcing an enhanced shareholder remuneration framework on Monday, including a R6 billion share buyback programme and a 45% uplift in the dividend, appears to have been positively received by investors.
The share price shot up 6.6% to R195,11 on the JSE on Monday morning. The share price has risen over 68% so far over 12 months.
The group, which attracted negative media attention recently because of an investment in an Iranian telecom company that it cannot sell, said at the release of 2025 financial results that shareholders would also benefit from a reaffirmation of medium-term earnings guidance, while return and debt leverage metrics were being updated.
The group said its work with communities, nation states, and other stakeholders had led to the achievement of its strongest reputation and trust scores since the launch of its Reputation Index Survey in 2019.
MTN operates in 16 markets, serving more than 307 million voice, 172 million data, and 70 million Mobile Money customers. The group invested R38 billion last year to enhance the capacity, coverage, and quality of networks and platforms.
The group said it had contributed about R150bn in economic and social value across Africa through the year; expanded broadband coverage to more than 94% of the population; and cut the cost of data to communicate for customers by an average of 14%.
“We are hugely excited about Africa’s potential and are well positioned to leverage our scale, footprint, and brand leadership to capture the significant structural growth opportunities identified. We are committed to accelerating our impact and empowering the people, businesses, and nation states we serve,” the group CEO Ralph Mupita said in a statement.
“The overall performance in 2025 was excellent. In the final year of our Ambition 2025 strategy, we exceeded the 300 million customers milestone in line with our priority to deepen digital and financial inclusion,” he said.
The year had seen “very strong commercial outcomes” in MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana; a resilient performance from MTN South Africa; robust free cash flow and improved return generation.
MTN’s data traffic accelerated by 27%, with average monthly data use per customer up at 12,5GB from 10,8GB. The fintech platform continued to be scaled, growing the ecosystem and benefiting from greater customer take-up of more advanced services.
This supported a 15% increase in the volume of transactions to more than 23 billion in the year, with total transaction value topping $500bn.
Underpinned by improved macroeconomic conditions, the group increased service revenue by nearly a quarter. In constant currency terms, MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana – which announced results in late February – lifted service revenue by 54,9% and 35,9% respectively.
MTN SA increased service revenue by 2% as it navigated the challenges of a mature and competitive market.
At R98,5bn, earnings before interest, tax, and amortisation (before once-off items) were up by more than a third in constant currency. This was supported by expense efficiencies of R3.6bn in the year. Basic earnings per share (EPS) swung from a loss in 2024 to a profit in 2025, and adjusted headline EPS increased by 67%.
MTN declared a dividend of 500 cents per share from 345 cents in 2024, comfortably outstripping the minimum 370 cents the board had anticipated.
The group said its new Ambition 2030 strategy would streamline its execution approach into three principal platforms of choice for consumers, homes, and businesses: Connectivity; Fintech; and Digital Infrastructure.
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