Subscriber gains drive sales growth for MTN in H1

• MTN reports group service revenues of $7.21bn for first half of 2026
• EBITDA up 24.4%, helped by strong subscriber growth in Ghana and Nigeria
• African telco reduced its capital intensity compared with the first half of 2025

MTN Group reported significant sales and earnings growth for the first half of 2026, which it credited to accelerated subscriber growth in several key markets and ongoing cost controls.

MTN is one of Africa’s biggest telcos, with more than 317 million customers across 19 markets. In the six months to the end of June, the operator reported service revenues of 115.3bn rand ($7.21bn), up 17.5% at constant currency exchange rates, with significant growth in Ghana (up 32.3%) and Nigeria (up 25.7%), as well as Cameroon, Uganda and Cote d'Ivoire. 

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before one-time items was R56bn ($3.5bn), up by 24.4% at constant currency levels.

One key driver of the growth, according to MTN, was its expanding subscriber base in those markets. In Nigeria, the operator’s largest single market, MTN’s customer base grew from 89.5 million in the previous quarter to 92.2 million at the end of June, while in Ghana it added around 800,000 subscribers to take its customer total to 32.7 million. Its total group customer base hit 317.7 million, up from 312.6 million at the end of March.

Overall, MTN committed R19.8bn ($1.24bn) in capital expenditure during the first six months of this year to expand its mobile network, connect more homes and invest in modernisation of IT across the business, giving it a capital intensity (the ratio of capex to revenues) of 16.6%, compared with a capital intensity ratio of 19% in the first half of last year, a trend that will help its margins.

“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. We are encouraged by the record margins delivered in the period as well as the strong cash upstreaming from operations,” stated MTN Group president and CEO Ralph Mupita.

MTN also saw growth in its mobile money operations, with its active subscriber base growing from 67.4 million at the end of the first quarter to 70.8 million at the end of June, with particularly strong growth in Nigeria. It also announced that, with Ericsson, it has completed the planned modernisation of its Mobile Money (MoMo) platform following a migration to a cloud-native architecture in several markets, including Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda and Uganda.

It wasn’t all good news, however. In its home market of South Africa, MTN SA saw a marginal decline in its customer base, from 40.3 million at the end of March to 39.5 million, of which 28.2 million were prepaid customers at the end of June. Total revenue in South Africa fell by 1.6% year on year to R24.8bn ($1.55bn), though service revenue grew by 1.5% to R21.94bn ($1.37bn).

But the CEO was still able to find a positive spin on the operator’s progress in its domestic market. “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. The deliberate reset of the prepaid base will deliver higher quality base growth over time,” Mupita said.

But, overall, MTN is expanding and seeking new growth opportunities. It is in the early stages of executing its Ambition 2030 strategy, unveiled in March, which “streamlines [MTN’s] execution approach into three principal platforms of choice for consumers, homes and businesses: Connectivity; Fintech; and Digital Infrastructure. Through the strategy, we are energised to provide the leading customer experience, leveraging AI for growth and creating shared value.”

Part of that new strategy includes plans for MTN to develop its own AI-optimised datacentre facilities and an “AI-enabled platform to address growing demand for cloud, enterprise and data-intensive services”. You can find out more about MTN’s AI ambitions in our recent interview with the telco’s chief technology and information officer (CTIO), Charles Molapisi. 

 - James Pearce, Editor, TelecomTV