MTN Nigeria Communications PLC has posted ₦4.7 trillion in total revenue for the nine months ended September 2026, a result that underlines the operator's continued market leadership in Nigeria's telecommunications sector. For Africa's most populous country, where mobile connections carry the bulk of internet usage, the figures double as a reading on the pace of digital adoption.

In a corporate filing released through the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Friday, the company said its earnings for the period grew 23.7% compared with the same reporting period in 2025. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, third-quarter earnings showed strong growth, a marked improvement on the slowdown recorded in the second quarter.

After paying ₦630.5 million to the Nigerian tax collector during the period, the operator delivered a profit after tax (PAT) of ₦1.17 trillion, an increase of 55.3%. The PAT margin — the percentage of total revenue that remains as net profit after all expenses, interest, depreciation and taxes are subtracted — expanded by 5.1 percentage points to 25.3%.

Breaking down the earnings report, the company's Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, noted that the growth was driven by more users, deeper data adoption, higher usage and rising demand for home broadband, supported by continued investment in network coverage, capacity and quality.

The growth was not without bottlenecks. Toriola pointed to market forces and the operator's ongoing battle with the increasing cost of powering its telecom towers — an expense expected to drive operational costs up 9.6% to ₦2 trillion in 2026, from ₦1.8 trillion in 2025. Energy is a defining cost line across Nigeria's telecom industry, where tower sites rely heavily on diesel generation to compensate for an unreliable national grid, making the pressure a sector-wide one rather than unique to MTN.

"We continue to deliver on our efficiency programme, expanding margins and strengthening cash generation despite energy cost pressures, and these gains are increasingly structural," he added.

The MTN chief also expressed confidence in the company's low financial risk, noting that it has borrowed only in naira. "Our balance sheet is strong, with borrowings fully naira-denominated and at fixed rates, eliminating foreign currency and floating-rate exposure on our debt," he said.

EBITDA increased by 36.8%, with the EBITDA margin expanding 5.5 percentage points to 56.9%. Depreciation and amortisation rose by 32.6%, reflecting higher network investment, while net finance costs fell by 25.3% to ₦277.0 billion as borrowings were reduced.

MTN Nigeria also operated in a relatively balanced foreign exchange environment, with the naira at ₦1,329/US$ at the end of September 2026 against ₦1,475/US$ in September 2025. The stronger currency produced a net foreign exchange gain of ₦80.1 billion, compared with ₦55.6 billion in the first nine months of 2025 — a welcome turn for a sector that absorbed heavy foreign exchange losses when the naira weakened sharply in recent years.

Data leads the growth engine

Internet penetration and the new world of work are major drivers of how Nigerians now spend most of their productive day online, and MTN has found itself at the receiving end of that trend as a direct beneficiary.

In the nine months ended September 2025, the operator's data revenue jumped 35.8% to ₦2.68 trillion, driven by broad-based digital adoption. As a share of earnings, data contributed just over 50% of the operator's revenue during the period — a structural turn for an industry long anchored on voice, which now accounts for a 32% share of MTN Nigeria's earnings.

The growth was attributed to active data users increasing by 12.0% to 57.2 million, while average monthly usage per active data user grew by 16.2% to 15.3GB over the nine months.

Another major driver is the data traffic on MTN's network, which rose by 30.1%. This means a higher volume of internet data, video streaming, app usage and digital communication is flowing through the provider's infrastructure than before — a sign that more users are streaming 4K video, high-definition live streams and heavy audio files.

Smartphones connected to the operator's network rose 12.4% as customers upgraded to 4G- and 5G-capable devices, bringing smartphone penetration to 66.0%. Device capability underpins that traffic, since 4G and 5G networks are what carry the high-bandwidth video usage driving the growth.

Home broadband gains ground

Home broadband is becoming an increasingly important contributor to MTN Nigeria's growth. FibreX, the company's flagship Fibre to the Home (FTTH) product, now carries approximately 13% of its total data traffic, with the migration of traffic onto fixed fibre freeing up capacity on the mobile network.

FTTH supports high-speed internet service and has been a pick for households, remote workers, gamers and businesses that require ultra-fast, reliable and high-bandwidth connectivity. In the broader FTTX market, industry data shows that MTN leads with 176,468 subscriptions as of Q2 2026 — a figure that tripled the 56,468 recorded by second-placed Fibre One. Set against 94.7 million mobile subscribers, the FTTX base illustrates how early-stage fixed home internet remains in Nigeria, and why the operator is positioning it as a growth lever.

Voice holds its relevance

MTN Nigeria's voice revenue grew by 11.1% to ₦1.5 trillion, fueled by a 10.9% increase in mobile subscribers to 94.7 million. Voice revenue made up a 32% share of the operator's earnings during the period, showing that while it remains a secondary contributor, it maintains its relevance to financial growth.

Capital expenditure (excluding leases) rose 14.2% to ₦864.8 billion, underscoring the continued push in infrastructure deployment. Specifically, MTN said its investment accelerated in the third quarter, rising 69.1%, as it stepped up its 2026 network rollout — expanding coverage and capacity, improving network quality and supporting home broadband growth. The closing months of the year will show how that accelerated rollout balances against the projected climb in operating costs to ₦2 trillion.

Building on a strong first half

The nine-month performance follows a robust showing in the first six months of 2026, when MTN Nigeria's profit after tax hit ₦707.54 billion, a 70.6% jump from ₦414.86 billion a year earlier. Total revenue grew 25.9% year-on-year to ₦2.99 trillion, with service revenue — the core measure of the company's operational performance — rising by the same margin to ₦2.97 trillion. Profit before tax came in at ₦1.09 trillion, a 75.4% increase from ₦622.26 billion in H1 2025. Stripped of the first-half contribution, the nine-month figures imply roughly ₦1.7 trillion of revenue and about ₦462 billion of profit after tax in the third quarter alone — consistent with the strong quarter-on-quarter growth the company reported.