MTN Nigeria reported a pre-tax profit of N546.421 billion, up 169.64% year over year, in its unaudited financial results for the first quarter that concluded on March 31, 2026.
The Q1 2026 profit is 4% less than the Q4 2025 pre-tax profit of N569.588 billion, making it the second-best quarterly profit since 2019.
The remarkable revenue growth, which increased by 42% YoY to N1,498 trillion—the highest quarterly revenue since 2019—was the primary driver of the profit growth.
At N16.95, earnings per share rose by 166%, or almost 30% of the full-year earnings per share for 2025.
Revenue reached N1.498 trillion, up 41.62% year over year. Operating costs for direct networking: N317.893 billion, down 5.77% year over year.
Its total assets are N5.849 trillion, up 8.25%, while its profit after tax was N355.501 billion, up 165.93% year over year.
According to MTN Nigeria, the Q1 2026 performance was boosted by cost discipline. Karl Toriola, CEO, commented on the outcomes:
Strong operational discipline kept operating expenses (opex) under control despite a difficult cost environment, providing significant operating leverage. In keeping with our medium-term guidance of a mid-to-high 50% margin range, EBITDA grew by 68.1% and EBITDA margin increased by 8.7 percentage points to 55.3%. PBT increased by 169.6% to N546.4 billion as a result.
The communication behemoth reported N1.49 trillion in revenue, the most since 2019.
A 9.5% increase in active data subscribers, a 5.5% increase in smartphone penetration to 66.2%, and increased customer usage all contributed to the 56.2% increase in data revenue.
The average usage per subscriber increased by 12.3% to 14.3GB, while data traffic increased by 22.9%, indicating the ongoing demand.
With the help of targeted customer value management programmes and subscriber growth, voice revenue increased by 22.5%.
Rich media services and mobile advertising drove a 12.1% increase in digital revenue.
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