IN SHORT: MTN Nigeria reported profit after tax of N355.5 billion ($614 million) for Q1 2026, up 165.9% year on year, driven by data revenue surging 56.2% and fintech revenue jumping 77.9%. Revenue hit N1.498 trillion ($2.57bn), the highest quarterly figure since 2019. Earnings per share rose 166% to N16.95. The company fully repaid all foreign currency loans in the quarter and ended with a positive net cash position of N129 billion. Diesel cost volatility could cut EBITDA margin by up to 2 percentage points in H2 2026.
MTN Nigeria has delivered its second-best quarterly profit since 2019, posting N355.5 billion after tax on N1.498 trillion in revenue for Q1 2026, a performance that confirms Nigeria’s largest telecom operator has moved decisively past the naira crisis era and into a new phase of structural earnings growth driven by data and fintech rather than FX windfalls.
The unaudited results, released April 30, show a business that has repaired its balance sheet, converted subscriber growth into revenue at scale, and built operating leverage that is now generating free cash flow at a rate that would have been unimaginable 24 months ago.
- Revenue grew 41.6% year on year to N1.498 trillion, the highest quarterly figure since 2019 and up from N1.06 trillion in Q1 2025. Data revenue was the primary driver, rising 56.2% as active data users grew 9.5% to 55 million. Average data usage per subscriber increased 12.3% to 14.3 GB per month. Smartphone penetration reached 66.2%, up 5.5 percentage points year on year.
- Fintech revenue surged 77.9%, underpinned by strong adoption of digital financial services across MTN’s MoMo platform. Voice revenue also grew 22.5%, benefiting from the tariff adjustments approved in early 2025. Total subscribers reached 89.5 million, up 6.5%, with 2.3 million new revenue-generating subscribers added in the quarter alone.
- EBITDA expanded 68.1% to N828.3 billion, pushing the EBITDA margin up 8.7 percentage points to 55.3%, reflecting strong operating leverage as revenue growth outpaced cost expansion. Free cash flow rose 55.6% to N326.5 billion.
- The balance sheet transformation is the headline: MTN Nigeria fully repaid all outstanding foreign currency loans during Q1, eliminating FX exposure that had been a structural drag on earnings since the naira devaluation of 2023-2024. The net cash position improved to N129 billion from N104.8 billion at end-December 2025.
- Capital expenditure rose 92.8% to N390.3 billion, with the bulk directed at fibre-to-the-home rollout, fixed wireless access, and general network capacity expansion. MTN is betting heavily on fixed broadband as a second growth engine alongside mobile, targeting Nigerian households and businesses that remain underserved by reliable home internet.
- The one significant risk in the results is energy costs. Nigerian telecom operators consume over 40 million litres of diesel monthly to power base stations, spending more than $350 million annually on self-generation due to grid instability. With the Dangote Refinery raising diesel prices to N1,800 per litre and Middle East tensions potentially pushing prices toward N2,000 in H2 2026, MTN estimates a 1.8 to 2.0 percentage point impact on full-year EBITDA margin if that level is sustained.
- Fintech separation is advancing: MTN Group Fintech Holdings will acquire 60% of MTN Nigeria’s digital financial services business, with MTN Nigeria retaining 40%. A capital injection of N152.1 billion is included in the transaction. The separation is designed to give the fintech business dedicated capital and management focus while releasing MTN Nigeria’s balance sheet for its core connectivity strategy.
- MTN Nigeria’s share price rose more than 6% in a single session following the results, cementing its position as the most valuable company on the Nigerian Exchange by market capitalisation.
CEO Karl Toriola: "The first quarter of 2026 underscores the strength of our execution and the resilience of our business model in a complex and evolving operating environment. We sustained strong commercial momentum, maintained disciplined cost management and accelerated investment in our network."
The Bigger Picture: MTN Nigeria in Q1 2026 is a fundamentally different company from MTN Nigeria in Q1 2024, when it posted a loss of roughly $688 million driven by FX pressure. The naira stabilisation, the tariff reset, and the data adoption curve have converged into a structural earnings recovery that is now running well ahead of analyst expectations. The fintech separation adds a second option on a separately valued digital financial services business. The diesel risk is real and will bear watching in Q2 and Q3. But the underlying business has demonstrated that it can generate N355 billion in quarterly after-tax profit with 55 million data users on a 66% smartphone penetration rate. Nigeria still has 34% of the population on feature phones. There is a long runway left.
*Source: <a href="https://businessday.ng/technology/article/mtn-nigeria-free-cash-flow-jumps-56-to-n326-5bn-in-q1-2026/”>BusinessDay / <a href="http://nairametrics.com/2026/04/30/mtn-reports-n546-billion-up-169-in-q1-2026-on-n1-5-trillion-revenue/”>Nairametrics / <a href="https://investorsking.com/2026/04/30/mtn-nigeria-profit-jumps-166-to-%E2%82%A6355-5-billion-as-revenue-hits-%E2%82%A61-5-trillion-in-q1-2026/”>Investors King, April 30, 2026
