MTN Nigeria Communications Plc has reported a historic N2.38 trillion in revenue for the first half of 2025, setting the stage for the telecoms giant to cross the N5 trillion revenue milestone for the first time in its history by year-end.
The figure represents a 54.5 per cent surge from N1.54 trillion posted in the same period of 2024.
At the heart of this performance is Nigeria’s surging appetite for data. MTN’s filings show that data services generated N1.22 trillion in the first half of 2025—accounting for 52 per cent of turnover—compared to just 18.7 per cent of revenue six years ago.
With 89.2 million active subscribers, MTN controls about 52 per cent of Nigeria’s mobile market, leaving Airtel (34 per cent), Globacom (12 per cent), and 9mobile (2 per cent) trailing behind. The company’s dominance ensures that every tariff change or new service rollout reaches more Nigerians than any of its competitors.
Its three business segments—consumer, enterprise, and wholesale—generated revenues of N1.94 trillion, N337.2 billion, and N93.5 billion respectively in the half-year period, underscoring its diversification strategy.
Telecoms analyst Dr. Andrew Eke, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, said MTN’s growth is a reflection of shifting consumer behavior.
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“Nigerians are spending less time on traditional voice calls and more on data-intensive platforms such as video streaming, e-commerce, and fintech applications. MTN’s network quality and broad reach put it in prime position to capture this transition.”
Financial markets expert Mrs. Kemi Balogun added that MTN’s disciplined reinvestment model is also a factor.
“The company generated nearly N1 trillion in net operating cash flow and reinvested heavily in expanding network infrastructure. This is why MTN can sustain its dominance and deliver value to both shareholders and the Nigerian government in taxes and levies.”
In the first half of 2025 alone, MTN generated N955.7 billion in net cash from operations. It spent N382.5 billion on network expansion, N192.8 billion on debt repayments, and N207.4 billion on taxes.
Despite these outflows, it ended the period with over N257 billion in cash and equivalents.
The company’s Value-Added Statement showed N1.41 trillion in wealth creation, up 66% from the previous year. Of this, N54.7 billion went to employees, N207.4 billion to the government, N279.7 billion to lenders and financiers, while shareholders retained N414.9 billion in profit.
Industry watchers believe MTN’s ability to diversify into enterprise and wholesale services while maintaining strong consumer momentum ensures resilience even if competition intensifies.
“MTN is no longer just a telco; it’s a digital infrastructure company,” said ICT consultant Tunde Fawole. “With fintech, IoT, and enterprise services expanding, the N5 trillion milestone may just be the beginning of a new growth cycle.”