MTN hits 323 million customers with R100 billion finish line in sight
MTN is continuing to grow in Africa and is looking to complete its R100 billion acquisition of IHS, a major infrastructure company.
The company has increased its total active customers to 322.9 million, a 7.2% increase over the last nine months.
The mobile network giant revealed the information in an operating update published on the Stock Exchange News Service (SENS).
The group increased its service revenue by 17.2% on a year-on-year basis, up every month since May 2026.
“Group service revenue increased by 9.9% to R176.2 billion on a reported basis, up 17.2% in constant currency,” MTN said.
The company’s Earnings Before Interest, Taxation, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) also increased by 22.9% during the nine-month period.
This increase was largely driven by operations in Nigeria and Ghana, where the company’s EBITDA rose 32.8% and 42.1%, respectively.
The group also saw its EBITDA increase in Rwanda by 26.9% and in Zambia by 54.2%.
In South Africa, MTN’s EBITDA growth was 7%, reflecting the maturity of the country’s mobile services industry.
The group president and CEO, Ralph Mupita, noted that MTN’s results were weaker on a rand basis due to the rand being strong against the dollar over the last nine months.
“Reported growth in rand was lower (service revenue up 9.9%; EBITDA up 17.7%) as the rand was on average c.10% stronger against the US dollar, which reduced the rand value of results from our Africa ex-South Africa operations,” he said.
Mupita also noted that data revenue was now one of the group’s key sources of revenue, accounting for more than 50% of its total.
“Demand across the Group remained robust,” he noted. “Customer numbers increased by 7.2% to 322.9 million, and data revenue grew by 28.2%: it now accounts for 50.4% of service revenue.”
“EBITDA growth outpaced service revenue growth, reflecting operating leverage and our expense efficiency programme, which absorbed higher energy costs.”
Mupita said MTN’s focus for the remainder of the year would be on sustaining its strong performance from the first three quarters, while addressing specific challenges.
“For the rest of the year, we will focus on sustaining the commercial momentum across our markets, carrying MTN SA’s Q3 improvement into Q4, restoring fintech growth towards our medium-term targets, addressing the specific challenges in MTN Uganda and completing the IHS transaction,” he said.
The IHS Tower deal
The IHS Towers transaction was previously announced by MTN and would result in the group acquiring approximately 29,000 towers across Africa.
MTN is currently a minority shareholder in the company and plans to take it private by acquiring all outstanding IHS shares at $8.50 per share.
The deal is valued at $6.2 billion (~R100 billion).
“By reintegrating the tower assets, MTN will be able to internalise the margin currently paid to IHS, benefit from current and future incremental third-party revenues, improve cost predictability and unlock significant long-term value embedded in its existing investment,” MTN said in February 2026.
In October 2026, the Competition Commission approved the proposed transaction, with conditions to address public interest concerns.
“The Commission found that the proposed transaction raises competition and public interest concerns,” the Commission said at the time.
“To address these concerns, the Commission has recommended conditions that mainly seek to protect jobs and historically disadvantaged persons (HDP) ownership.”
The conditions also required that the acquisition not disadvantage non-MTN customers and that it ensure IHS remains operationally independent.
“No customer must be disadvantaged relative to MTN SA, and fair, equitable and non-discriminatory access to infrastructure by mobile network operators (MNOs) ensured,” the Competition Commission said.
“The conditions safeguard competitively sensitive customer information, support small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) and HDP participation in new tower sites,” it added.
“The Commission’s recommended conditions also maintain IHS as an operationally independent entity.”
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