By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
MTN Group has reported
strong financial and operational performance for the first half of 2026, driven
by growth in service revenue, earnings, cash generation and customer demand
across its African markets.
The telecommunications group
said service revenue increased by 17.5% to R115 billion in constant-currency
terms in the six months to June 2026, while earnings before interest, tax,
depreciation and amortisation before once-off items rose by almost a quarter to
R56 billion.
The performance was
supported by strong growth from MTN Ghana, MTN Nigeria, MTN Uganda, MTN Côte
d’Ivoire, MTN Cameroon and other markets. MTN South Africa recorded a 1.5%
increase in service revenue, although the business continued to manage the
near-term impact of measures aimed at improving the quality of its prepaid
customer base.
MTN Group President and CEO
Ralph Mupita said the performance reflected the conversion of commercial
momentum across the group’s markets into stronger earnings, cash flow and
shareholder returns.
He said the group delivered
record margins during the period and committed almost R20 billion in capital
expenditure in the first half of the year to expand its mobile networks,
connect more homes and modernise information technology infrastructure.
MTN also announced the
launch of a share buyback programme involving approximately 31 million ordinary
shares for an aggregate consideration of up to R6 billion. The programme will
be implemented subject to market conditions and will continue while it remains
value accretive to shareholders.
The buyback forms part of
MTN’s shareholder remuneration framework under its Ambition 2030 strategy,
which targets the distribution of between 40% and 60% of equity free cash flow
to shareholders through cash dividends or share buybacks.
The group is also advancing
its proposed acquisition of the remaining shares in tower company IHS Holdings.
MTN said the transaction is expected to be accretive to revenue, profit after
tax and adjusted headline earnings per share on a pro forma basis.
The proposed IHS transaction
has received regulatory approval in several jurisdictions, including Nigeria’s
Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. Under conditional
approvals, MTN will sell a 30% stake in IHS Nigeria to local Nigerian investors
on an arm’s-length commercial basis and subject to market conditions.
MTN expects the IHS
transaction to close in the second half of 2026, pending remaining regulatory
approvals.
Customer and digital
activity also expanded during the period. As of June 30, MTN served 317.7
million customers across 19 markets, including more than 179 million active
data users.
Data traffic across the
group’s networks increased by nearly 23% to 14.3 petabytes, reflecting
continued growth in digital adoption across its markets.
MTN’s fintech operations
also recorded strong growth, with active Mobile Money users reaching 70.8
million. The value of fintech transactions increased by more than a third to
US$330 billion, while transaction volumes rose 17% to 13 billion.
The number of active fintech
agents increased to 1.4 million, while active fintech merchants grew by more
than 18% to 2.3 million. MTN said advanced fintech services were the main
driver of overall fintech revenue growth.
In South Africa, MTN’s
subscriber base declined marginally to 39.5 million amid competitive pressures
and constrained liquidity. The group said its prepaid customer base stood at
28.2 million, with management continuing efforts to improve the quality and
sustainability of prepaid growth.
Mupita said MTN South Africa
had recorded encouraging improvements in prepaid data performance, while
postpaid, enterprise and wholesale businesses contributed to stronger growth in
the second quarter compared with the first quarter.
MTN said its medium-term
outlook remained positive, supported by increasing digital adoption and
financial inclusion across Africa. However, the group noted that geopolitical
developments, foreign exchange volatility and inflationary pressures remained
areas requiring close monitoring.
The group said its
diversified operations, strong balance sheet, market positions and disciplined
execution would provide resilience as it advances the Ambition 2030 strategy
and seeks to strengthen returns for shareholders.
