MTN's growth engine is moving beyond South Africa, with markets such as Nigeria and Ghana driving much of the group's momentum in the first half of 2026.

The group's service revenue grew 17.5% in constant-currency terms to R115.3 billion ($7.21 billion) in H1 2026, but the gains were concentrated outside its home market. Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon were among the strongest contributors, while South Africa posted service-revenue growth of just 1.5%. The constant-currency measure strips out the effect of exchange-rate swings across the group's 19 markets, giving a clearer view of underlying performance than reported rand figures.

The results suggest that MTN's diversification across 19 markets is becoming increasingly important to its growth prospects, allowing faster-growing businesses in markets such as Nigeria and Ghana to offset weaker conditions at home. Nigeria is aiming for at least low-20% service-revenue growth, Ghana expects mid-to-upper 30% expansion, and South Africa is targeting only low-to-mid-single-digit gains.

"The increasing contribution from our broader markets and growth platforms continued to enhance the resilience and quality of Group earnings," MTN said in its results announcement on Monday.

Ralph Mupita, MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer, pointed to the same dynamic, saying the company's performance reflected strong conversion of commercial momentum.

"We are encouraged by the record margins delivered in the period as well as the strong cash upstreaming from operations," Mupita said.

MTN committed almost R20 billion ($1.25 billion) in capital expenditure during H1 to expand its mobile network, connect more homes and modernise IT across the business, he added.

Data outpaces voice

Services beyond traditional voice are a key growth driver. Data revenue rose 29.2% in constant currency, while voice revenue grew only 2.4% on the same measure. MTN added 6.7% more customers to reach 317.7 million, while active data subscribers climbed 9.1% to 179.3 million. The gap between the two revenue lines mirrors a wider pattern across African telecoms, where data is growing far faster than voice as smartphone use deepens.

Fintech builds on the customer base

That enormous customer base is also becoming the foundation for another part of MTN's expansion: fintech. MTN's MoMo platform, the group's mobile money business, had 70.8 million monthly active users by June, while fintech transaction volumes rose 17.2% to 13 billion. Transaction value increased 33.8% in constant currency to $330.5 billion, supported by a network of 1.4 million active agents and 2.3 million active fintech merchants.

According to the results, the fintech ecosystem continued to grow, with the 70.8 million active mobile money users driving demand for digital financial services. Active agents reached 1.4 million and fintech merchants rose more than 18% to 2.3 million, with advanced services leading fintech revenue growth. Mobile money has become an everyday channel for payments and transfers across much of Africa, particularly where access to traditional banking is limited, which is why those agent and merchant networks matter to the platform's reach.

The company is now restructuring its fintech operations in key markets. It has completed the structural separation of its Ghana fintech business and is progressing similar processes in Nigeria and Uganda, while deepening its partnership with Ant International, a global digital payments company. MTN describes the moves as part of its effort to accelerate growth in "one of Africa's leading fintech platforms."

A tougher picture at home

South Africa, meanwhile, presents a more challenging growth picture. In a highly competitive market marked by constrained liquidity, MTN SA subscribers edged down to 39.5 million, including 28.2 million prepaid customers.

"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," Mupita said. "The deliberate reset of the prepaid base will deliver higher quality base growth over time."

Growth in MTN SA's postpaid, enterprise and wholesale businesses helped drive stronger performance in Q2 2026 than in Q1.

Ambition 2030 and the IHS Towers deal

The contrast between the home market and the wider group is central to MTN's Ambition 2030 strategy, which groups the business around three platforms: Connectivity, Fintech and Digital Infrastructure.

The third piece is MTN's planned acquisition of the remaining shares in IHS Towers, the tower infrastructure company that leases masts and sites to mobile operators. MTN says the transaction is expected to be accretive to revenue, earnings and free cash flow over time, although regulatory approvals remain. Nigeria has granted conditional approval requiring MTN to sell down up to 30% of the Nigerian IHS business to local investors. Beyond Nigeria's clearance, the approvals still outstanding in other jurisdictions — together with completion of the fintech separations in Nigeria and Uganda — are the milestones that will mark the strategy's rollout in the quarters ahead.