MTN Group reported service revenue growth of 21.1 percent in the first quarter of 2026, driven by a 41.7 percent surge from its Nigerian operations and continued expansion of its active data user base, which grew 8.7 percent to reach 175.6 million subscribers across its 16-market footprint.
The South African telco — the largest mobile network operator on the continent, with 312.7 million total subscribers following a 5.4 percent increase in the period — also posted EBITDA growth of 27.9 percent, outpacing revenue growth and signalling improving margin discipline. The results mark a continuation of the recovery trajectory MTN has been building since navigating severe currency headwinds across key African markets in 2023 and 2024.
Nigeria Carries the Group
MTN Nigeria delivered N355.5 billion in profit in Q1 2026, cementing its position as the group’s most profitable single market. The 41.7 percent service revenue growth from Nigeria alone is the standout figure in the results — and it comes on top of a strong 2025, when MTN Nigeria recorded a profit after tax of N1.1 trillion, its first significant recovery after years of losses driven by naira devaluation.
The exchange rate environment that punished MTN Nigeria’s reported results in 2023 and early 2024 has stabilised into a relative tailwind. Revenue growth in naira terms, combined with a less volatile FX rate against the rand and the dollar, has allowed the group to show strong consolidated numbers where it previously had to report erosion.
MTN Ghana recorded service revenue growth of 35.7 percent, with its fintech structural separation completed on 30 March 2026 — the first market in the group to formally separate its mobile money business from core telecom operations. MTN Cameroon and MTN Côte d’Ivoire grew service revenues by 14.4 percent and 18.3 percent respectively. These West African markets, which have historically contributed steadily but without the drama of the Nigerian operations, are now benefiting from the same currency normalisation dynamic.
Data and Fintech Drive the Growth Engine
Active data users grew by 8.7 percent to 175.6 million, a notably faster pace than the 5.4 percent subscriber base growth. That 3.3 percentage point gap reflects the accelerating shift to internet usage across MTN’s markets — more subscribers are coming onto the network as data users rather than voice-first customers.
Network data traffic reached 7,826 petabytes in Q1 2026, a 20.2 percent increase over the same period in 2025. The volume confirms that data monetisation, not SIM card additions, is now the primary revenue growth lever for MTN across most of its operating markets.
MTN’s fintech arm, MoMo, grew monthly active users to 67.4 million — representing 21.6 percent of the group’s total subscriber base. Fintech revenues grew 22.4 percent, driven by a 15.8 percent increase in transaction volumes and a 32.8 percent increase in transaction values to USD 163 billion (R2.69 trillion) for the quarter. That gap between volume and value growth indicates that higher-value transactions — business payments, merchant settlements, and bulk transfers — are a growing component of the MoMo mix.
The structural separation of MoMo from core telecom, completed first in Ghana and ongoing in Nigeria and Uganda, is the strategic move underpinning MTN’s longer-term fintech ambitions. Separating the unit is intended to give MoMo operational independence, a cleaner balance sheet, and eventually a credible path to its own capital structure and external investment. The model mirrors what Airtel Africa attempted with Airtel Money, an IPO process that has been repeatedly delayed.
Risks the Numbers Don’t Dissolve
The Q1 2026 results are strong. They do not resolve MTN’s structural vulnerabilities. The group’s concentration in Nigeria — a single market driving disproportionate profit — means that any renewed naira instability, regulatory friction, or competitive disruption from Airtel Nigeria would have outsized group-level consequences. MTN Nigeria and Airtel suspended credit services in April 2026 as Nigeria’s digital lending regulatory environment tightened, a reminder that Abuja can move quickly against telco-led financial services.
MTN has also flagged Middle East geopolitical tensions and their potential oil price and FX implications as a risk to its capital allocation framework through the rest of 2026. The group is monitoring the situation while pointing to its expense efficiency programme as a buffer.
MoMo’s 21.6 percent subscriber penetration — meaning roughly four in five MTN subscribers do not use mobile money — represents both upside potential and a persistent adoption challenge. MTN has 13.3 million more mobile money customers than Airtel Africa as of Q1 2026, a comfortable lead but one that requires continued investment in agent networks, merchant acquisition, and product depth to sustain.
African telecom infrastructure investment has historically been a two-cycle story — build the network, then monetise through data and financial services. MTN is firmly in the monetisation phase. The Q1 2026 numbers confirm the revenue model is working. The fintech separation and the data growth trajectory give the group the cleanest strategic narrative it has had in several years.
What the numbers cannot fully answer is whether a telco-turned-fintech can maintain regulatory goodwill, competitive positioning, and execution discipline simultaneously across 16 markets — some of which are among the most operationally demanding in the world.
