MTN booms across Africa, but South Africa struggles to keep pace

Johannesburg – MTN Group has reported strong financial growth for the first half of 2026, driven by its operations across Africa, while MTN South Africa delivered comparatively modest revenue growth amid efforts to improve the quality of its prepaid customer base.

The telecommunications group said on Monday that service revenue increased by 17.5% in constant-currency terms to R115 billion in the six months to June, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), excluding once-off items, rose by almost a quarter to R56 billion.

MTN said the performance was supported by strong growth in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and its broader portfolio.

However, MTN South Africa’s service revenue increased by just 1.5% during the period, although growth improved in the second quarter to 2.3%, from 0.7% in the first quarter.

The company attributed the slower growth partly to deliberate measures to reset its large prepaid customer base.

“MTN SA’s prepaid performance was encouraging as we saw improving growth on data, fewer customers using airtime advance for recharging and increased bank recharges,” MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita said.

“The deliberate reset of the prepaid base will deliver higher quality base growth over time,” he said.

MTN South Africa had 39.5 million subscribers at the end of June, a marginal decline during the period. Prepaid customers accounted for 28.2 million of its subscriber base.

The company said stronger performances from its postpaid, enterprise and wholesale businesses helped MTN South Africa deliver improved growth in the second quarter.

Mupita said the group’s overall performance demonstrated stronger earnings and cash generation across its markets.

“The Group’s overall performance in the period reflects strong conversion of the commercial momentum we see across our markets into growth in earnings, cashflow and returns,” he said.

“We are encouraged by the record margins delivered in the period as well as the strong cash upstreaming from operations.”

MTN said it invested almost R20 billion in capital expenditure during the first half of the year to expand its mobile network, connect more homes and modernise its information technology systems.

The group served 317.7 million customers across 19 markets at the end of June, including more than 179 million active data users. Data traffic across its networks increased by nearly 23% to 14.3 petabytes.

R6 billion share buyback

Alongside the results, MTN announced a share buyback programme involving approximately 31 million ordinary shares at an aggregate cost of up to R6 billion.

The programme forms part of the shareholder remuneration framework under its Ambition 2030 strategy, under which MTN aims to return between 40% and 60% of equity free cash flow to shareholders through dividends or share buybacks.

The company said the buyback would continue, subject to market conditions, for as long as it remained value-accretive to shareholders.

MTN is also progressing with its proposed acquisition of the remaining shares in tower company IHS Holdings.

The group said the transaction had received approval from several regulators, including Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. As part of the conditional approvals, MTN will sell a 30% stake in IHS Nigeria to local Nigerian investors on an arm’s-length commercial basis, subject to market conditions.

MTN expects the IHS transaction to close in the second half of 2026, pending the remaining regulatory approvals.

Data and fintech drive growth

MTN’s data and fintech businesses continued to expand during the period.

The group had 70.8 million active Mobile Money users, while the value of fintech transactions increased by more than a third to US$330 billion. 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 underlying demand for its connectivity, fintech and digital infrastructure services remained strong despite economic and currency pressures across its markets.

Mupita said the group’s diversified operations would help it navigate the risks facing its markets.

“While geopolitical developments, foreign exchange volatility and inflationary pressures remain areas of focus, our diversified portfolio, strong balance sheet, strong market positions, and disciplined execution provide resilience,” he said.

For South Africa, the performance highlights the challenge facing MTN as it attempts to extract stronger growth from a mature and highly competitive telecommunications market, while simultaneously investing in network expansion and improving the quality of its customer base.