Despite Earning N529 Billion in Data Revenue, MTN Struggles With Network Disruptions

• MTN Nigeria has reported a significant shift in its revenue structure, with data earnings surpassing voice revenue for the first time
• The company's data revenue reached N529.4 billion in Q1 2025, marking a 51.5% increase from N349.5 billion in Q1 2024
• After finally returning to profitability, MTN credited its strong performance to price adjustments and continuous network upgrades

Legit.ng journalist Victor Enengedi has over a decade's experience covering Energy, MSMEs, Technology, Banking and the Economy.

MTN Nigeria's data revenue rose in the first quarter of 2025, reaching N529.4 billion, marking a 51.5% increase from N349.5 billion in Q1 2024.

According to the unaudited results released by the company, data now represents the largest portion of MTN's service revenue, which totalled N1.05 trillion for the quarter, reflecting a 40.5% year-on-year growth.

Data earnings grew by 17% compared to the previous quarter, while voice revenue increased by 15.5%.

MTN attributed its performance to the benefits of price adjustments and ongoing investments in network upgrades to improve service quality.

Part of the report stated,

“Data revenue rose by 51.5 per cent, driven by active user base growth and higher data consumption. This benefited from some further support from the price adjustments and our ongoing network investments to enhance service quality. Data traffic increased by 46.4 per cent, while average usage per subscriber grew by 29.5 per cent to 12.8GB.”

Earlier in the first quarter of the year, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) authorised telecom companies to raise their tariffs.

Consequently, MTN Nigeria implemented an increase in the prices of its calls, SMS, and data plans.

Despite the significant revenue generated from data, many of its Nigerian subscribers experienced network disruptions on Tuesday, May 6, which lasted for hours and hindered their access to social media and data applications.

Other key highlights of MTN's performance

During the same period, MTN Nigeria's voice revenue amounted to N407.4 billion, reflecting a growing trend of consumers shifting towards internet-based services.

The company also added nearly four million smartphones to its network, boosting smartphone pen*tration to 60.7%, highlighting the increasing demand for high-speed data services.

MTN’s 4G network now covers 82.7% of the population, an increase of 0.2 percentage points, while its 5G coverage remained steady at 12.7%.

The company prioritised enhancing network capacity over expanding coverage.

Additionally, MTN retained its leadership in the home broadband market, adding around 233,000 new subscribers in Q1, bringing its total broadband user base to 3.5 million.

The operator leveraged its 5G fixed wireless access and fibre-to-the-home services to provide reliable connectivity to households and businesses.

MTN posts profit after several losses

The multinational telecom company finally returned to profitability, following a prolonged period of financial losses.

As previously reported by Legit.ng, MTN suffered significant losses due to the naira devaluation and the floating of the foreign exchange market.

The year 2024 proved particularly challenging, with a loss exceeding N400 billion, more than double the N137 billion loss incurred in 2023.

In both 2023 and 2024, shareholders received no dividends, raising concerns that another year of losses could severely impact shareholder value.

To mitigate these losses, MTN has taken steps in 2025 to reduce its foreign exchange exposure by paying off a substantial portion of its dollar-denominated loans.

MTN suffers cyberattack

In related news, Legit.ng reported that MTN Group suffered a cyberattack, resulting in the exposure of customer data across multiple countries.

The breach, which targeted MTN, granted unauthorised access to the personal information of users in several regions.

However, MTN reassured the public in a statement that its critical infrastructure, core platforms, and services remained unaffected by the incident.

Source: Legit.ng