MTN Nigeria’s profit after tax hit N707.54 billion in the first half of 2026, a 70.6% jump from N414.86 billion a year earlier, driven by strong data revenue growth and better forex condition
MTN Nigeria’s profit after tax hit N707.54 billion in the first half of 2026, a 70.6% jump from N414.86 billion a year earlier, driven by strong data revenue growth and better forex conditions.
The telecom giant also declared an interim dividend of N26 per share for the period.
Total revenue grew 25.9% year-on-year to N2.99 trillion, with service revenue, the core measure of the company’s operational performance, rising by the same margin to N2.97 trillion. Profit before tax came in at N1.09 trillion, a 75.4% increase from N622.26 billion in H1 2025.
MTN Nigeria CEO, Karl Toriola at MTN’s Data on Trial on Saturday June 6, 2026 The standout performer was data. Data revenue surged 38.4% to N1.70 trillion, now MTN Nigeria‘s single largest revenue line and the clearest signal of where Nigerian telecoms is heading. The company added 4.7 million data subscribers in the period, bringing the total to 55.7 million.
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Mobile subscribers grew 8.9% to 92.2 million, while MoMo wallets, the company’s mobile money product, nearly doubled, rising 88.8% to five million wallets. That growth in MoMo, while still a relatively small part of the overall business, signals that the company is making progress in financial services even as its fintech revenue line faced headwinds.
MTN MoMo What drove the profit surge for MTN Nigeria and what held it backThe 70% jump in profit after tax was not purely operational. Two forces combined to make the numbers significantly better than a year ago.
The first is genuine business growth. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation), the best measure of core business health, grew 39.2% to N1.67 trillion. The EBITDA margin also expanded from 50.6% to 55.9%, which means MTN Nigeria is not just bringing in more revenue, it is holding on to more of every naira it makes.
The second force is the foreign exchange swing. In H1 2025, MTN Nigeria recorded a net foreign exchange loss of N5.23 billion. In H1 2026, that flipped to a N36.36 billion gain, a turnaround of more than N41 billion that fed directly into profit before tax.
Not everything moved in the right direction. Fintech revenue fell 7.2% to N77.17 billion, with Q2 particularly weak at N12.99 billion compared to N47.11 billion in Q2 2025, a 72.4% quarterly drop. MTN attributed part of this to the temporary suspension of airtime and data credit services, which affected revenue in that segment during the period.
MTN Nigeria Capital expenditure excluding right-of-use assets was broadly flat at N620.51 billion, but free cash flow jumped 73.9% to N712.72 billion, giving the company significantly more financial flexibility than it had a year ago.
The N26 interim dividend per share reflects that improved cash position and signals management’s confidence in the sustainability of the performance.
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