MTN Nigeria Halts Negative Earnings, Profit Soars by 134%
MTN Nigeria Plc has halted its negative earnings performance in the first quarter of 2025, as the telecom company’s profit soared by 134% to N133.638 billion year on year.
A review of its audited financial scorecard showed that the telecom company’s revenue surged by 40.5% year-on-year to close at N1.057 trillion from N752.983 billion in Q1-2024, supported by higher data tariffs pricing allowed by the regulator.
Data and voice remain the company’s major revenue drivers, growing by 51.5% and 27.7% to close at N529.44 billion and N407.412 billion in the first quarter of 2025. The telecom company reported that its expenses increased by 23.9% year-on-year in Q1 to close at N567.227 billion from N456.023 billion 12 months earlier.
Net finance costs reduced, supporting the company’s bottom-line growth. Details revealed that MTN Nigeria’s net finance costs fell by 44% to N134.545 billion in Q1, from N93.405 billion in the equivalent period in 2024. The drop was driven by lower finance lease payments.
The telecom also reported a 99.2% reduction in FX losses in Q1 to N5.525 billion from N656.368 billion, helping reverse its negative performance. Commenting on the results, Karl Toriola said, “We are pleased with our performance in the first quarter of 2025, which reflects the continued execution of our strategic priorities and the resilience of demand for our services.
“Building on the momentum from Q4 2024, our Q1 results place us firmly on the path to restoring profitability and achieving a positive net asset position within the current financial year, while increasing our investments to improve network and service quality.
“ Although macroeconomic uncertainties persist, we are encouraged by the relative stability of the naira during the period and the moderation in inflation following the rebasing of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in January 2025.
“The exchange rate remained relatively stable at N1,537/US$ at the end of March 2025, while reported inflation was 24.2%.
During the quarter, we received regulatory approval for price adjustments, a critical enabler to sustain ongoing investment in the industry and maintain the quality of service for our customers.
“This has empowered us to accelerate network investments with N202.4 billion in capex (up 159%), focused on boosting capacity and improving user experience. We also continued to explore efficiency-enhancing opportunities through infrastructure-sharing partnerships.
“A key milestone was the agreement between MTN Group and Airtel Africa to collaborate on passive infrastructure in Nigeria, enabling accelerated coverage and driving network cost efficiencies.
“our commercial performance remained strong, supported by sustained investment in network capacity, solid demand, and proactive customer value management (CVM) initiatives.
“In Q1, we added 3.2 million new subscribers, bringing our total base to 84.1 million. During the same period, active data users rose by 2.6 million, increasing the base to 50.3 million and contributing to a 46.4% YoY growth in data traffic.
“This growth was supported by our disciplined approach to gross connections and churn management, as well as continuous innovation in customer value propositions.
“We commenced phased implementation of the new tariff structure in mid-February 2025 across our data and voice bundles, with the majority of adjustments taking effect in March.
“While the full impact on usage and revenue is expected from Q2, early indicators suggest continued resilience in customer demand, aided by our targeted CVM initiatives.
“Our fintech strategy recalibration was well-advanced during the quarter, with a deliberate focus on enhancing the quality of our ecosystem.
“Although this led to a 25.7% decline in our active wallet base to 2.1 million compared to December 2024, it enabled us to on board more high-value customers and improve float levels, thereby enhancing the overall health and sustainability of the ecosystem.
“As part of our long-term ambition to drive financial inclusion, we are launching a rural penetration strategy aimed at expanding access to financial services for underserved and financially excluded communities.
“We remain committed to improving the quality and engagement of our wallet base, while accelerating the development of advanced fintech services. These efforts are aligned with our strategic objective to build a more robust, inclusive, and scalable digital financial ecosystem.
“Our strong commercial momentum drove broad-based revenue growth across core segments, including data, voice, digital services and fintech. Service revenue grew by 40.5%, supported by the late-quarter tariff adjustments.
“Cost pressures were mitigated by our revised IHS tower lease agreement, which reduced foreign exchange (forex) exposure and capped price increases, as well as improved underlying expense efficiency initiatives.
“As a result, EBITDA increased by 65.9%, and the EBITDA margin expanded by 7.2 percentage points to 46.6%, which aligns with our guidance. Notably, the stability in the exchange rate in Q1 versus December 2024 helped reduce forex losses”.
MTN chief said the telecom company reported a significant turnaround in our bottom line, with a profit after tax of N133.7 billion versus a loss of N392.7 billion in the prior year“. This performance reflects the successful delivery of the five strategic priorities we committed to at the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held on 30 April 2024.
“As a result, our retained earnings improved to negative N474.1 billion (December 2024: negative N607.5 billion) and shareholders’ equity to negative N324.6 billion (December 2024: negative N458.0 billion).
“We also delivered a positive free cash flow of N209.9 billion, representing a decrease of 54.8%, mainly due to the accelerated capex in Q1 and the elevated prior-year FCF base, due to larger naira depreciation and accrual build-up in that period”.
MTN Nigeria expects a progressive recovery in FCF as the full impact of the tariff increase is realised” Naira Appreciates as CBN Sells Additional Dollars in FX Market
