Nigeria and Ghana are becoming increasingly important to MTN Group’s financial engine, sending R9.3 billion to the telecom giant in the first half of 2026 as stronger growth in West Africa helped offset sluggish performance in its South African home market.
Ghana contributed R6.6 billion and Nigeria R2.7 billion of the R13.9 billion in cash upstreamed by MTN’s operating companies to the group during the six months ended June, according to its results released on August 24. Together, the two countries accounted for 67 percent of the total, compared with R2.1 billion from South Africa.
The increase in cash transfers is significant for MTN because it comes alongside a sharp improvement in group earnings and gives the company more room to invest and return capital to shareholders.
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MTN’s service revenue rose 17.5 percent in constant-currency terms to R115 billion, while EBITDA before once-off items increased 24.4 percent to R56 billion. The stronger earnings lifted the group’s EBITDA margin to a record level of about 47 percent.
