MTN's Ghanaian subscribers generate significantly more revenue per user than its Nigerian customers, according to the operator's results for the nine months ended September 2026. The contrast highlights how subscriber volume and per-user spending tell two different stories for Africa's largest telecoms group: Nigeria powered headline revenue and user growth, while Ghana delivered more value from each customer.

Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) — a measure of how much an operator earns from each customer in a market — is where the divergence becomes clear. From January to September 2026, MTN Nigeria posted service revenue of $3.48 billion (₦4.06 trillion) with a subscriber base of 94.7 million, putting ARPU at $36.72. Over the same period, MTN Ghana reported $1.992 billion (GH¢23.2 billion) in service revenue from 34.3 million subscribers, an ARPU of $58.08. As one of the telecom industry's standard benchmarks, ARPU makes it possible to compare how much value each market produces per customer, independent of subscriber counts.

MTN's Ghanaian ARPU of $58.08 is roughly 58% higher than Nigeria's $36.72 per subscriber. The figures show that despite a subscriber base roughly one-third the size of Nigeria's, Ghanaian customers spend more on digital data and financial services.

The gap reflects the interplay of macroeconomic forces, exchange-rate considerations and subscriber spending behavior. Ghanaian users consume significantly more data per line and actively use digital value-added services, demonstrating how high data usage directly inflates ARPU. The difference also points to stronger purchasing power in Ghana: Nigerian subscribers face inflationary pressure on disposable income, resulting in lower per-user spending when converted into dollar terms.

Strong growth on both sides

Following the payment of ₦630.5 million to the Nigerian tax collector during the period, MTN Nigeria delivered a profit after tax (PAT) of ₦1.17 trillion, up 55.3% for the nine months ended September 2026.

Data revenue jumped 35.8% to ₦2.68 trillion, driven by broad-based digital adoption. Data accounted for just over 50% of the operator's earnings, a share attributed to active data users rising 12.0% to 57.2 million and average monthly usage per active data user growing 16.2% to 15.3GB. The weighting toward data mirrors a broader pattern across African telecoms, where operators increasingly lean on data and mobile financial services as their main growth engines rather than voice alone.

Voice revenue in Nigeria grew 11.1% to ₦1.5 trillion, fueled by a 10.9% increase in mobile subscribers, which now stand at 94.7 million. Voice made up a 32% share of the operator's earnings, showing that while it is a secondary contributor, it remains relevant to financial growth.

MTN Ghana recorded GH¢23.2 billion in service revenue over the same period, driven by accelerating performance in the third quarter. PAT rose 43% to GH¢7.8 billion, while earnings per share reached GH¢0.586. EBITDA increased 40.6% year on year to GH¢14.3 billion, lifting the EBITDA margin by 3.1 percentage points to 61.5%.

Subscriber growth continued to support the Ghanaian unit's performance, with mobile subscribers up 12.7% year on year to 34.3 million and active data users growing 16.1% to 22 million. Active MoMo (mobile money) users reached 18.9 million, a 6.9% increase.

Capex and market dominance

The growth and contribution of MTN's Ghanaian and Nigerian operations did not come out of nowhere; they were built on sustained investment and favorable macroeconomic conditions. In its H1 2025 report, the group said around R38.5 billion was spent on capital expenditure to enhance capacity, coverage and quality. Specifically, the group described investment in its Nigeria and Ghana subsidiaries as "accelerated investment to support stronger growth."

Their rise as the group's two leading contributors to earnings stems from their respective dominance in local markets, alongside rising demand for mobile data. In Nigeria, MTN now controls 51.7% of the total telecoms market, leaving Airtel, Globacom and T2mobile (9mobile) to battle for the rest. In Ghana, it holds 32.8 million subscribers, representing 85% of the country's total. In a capital-intensive industry, that kind of scale matters, since network investment costs are spread across larger subscriber bases.

Record group revenue, with Nigeria and Ghana at the core

Between January and June 2026, the group posted service revenue of approximately $7.18 billion (R115.3 billion), 17.5% more than a year earlier and the highest in its history. PAT surged to $994 million (R15.9 billion) from R14.8 billion in the prior period.

Beyond the record revenue, the spotlight falls on how the Nigerian and Ghanaian markets are solidifying their place as high-return markets for the group. MTN Nigeria and Ghana contributed 30% and 19% of group total revenue, respectively — a combined 49% from just two of the 16 markets in which the group operates, a sign of their sustained dominance.

In the first half, the Nigerian market delivered ₦3 trillion in service revenue, driven largely by ₦1.70 trillion in data revenue and supported by ₦993 billion from voice and ₦77 billion from fintech. In Ghana, revenue rose 32.3% year on year to $1.3 billion (GH¢14.96 billion), while PAT jumped 43.3% to $461 million (GH¢5.13 billion). Because MTN reports group figures in rand, currency translation shapes how these naira- and cedi-denominated earnings flow into headline results — a dynamic worth tracking when the group publishes its full-year numbers, alongside whether Nigeria and Ghana hold on to a combined share approaching half of group revenue.

Across both reporting periods, Nigeria supplied the larger subscriber volumes and headline revenues, while Ghana delivered the higher earnings per customer.