MTN reports bumper year with 307 million customers and bigger payouts to shareholders

Africa Melane (in for Stephen Grootes) interviews Ralph Mupita, chief executive of MTN Group, after the telecoms giant delivered a strong set of results for the 2025 financial year and surprised investors with a higher-than-expected dividend.

Listen to the interview in the audio player below.

African telecom giant MTN Group has reported a strong set of results for 2025, with growing demand for mobile data and financial services helping the company return to profit and reward shareholders with a much higher dividend.

The group says it has now passed a major milestone, serving more than 307 million customers across 16 African markets, highlighting the rapid growth of mobile connectivity and digital services on the continent.

The company says growing smartphone adoption and increasing internet use across Africa are driving demand for its services.

Data usage, in particular, is expanding rapidly. Total data traffic on MTN’s networks increased by 27%, while the average customer now uses 12.5GB of data per month, up from 10.8GB a year earlier.

To support this demand, MTN invested R38 billion during the year to expand and improve its networks across its markets.

Another major growth area for the group is its fintech platform, which includes mobile money and digital financial services.

MTN recorded more than 23 billion mobile money transactions in 2025, a 15% increase compared to the previous year.

Speaking to Africa Melane on The Money Show, Ralph Mupita, chief executive of MTN Group says the company's strategy has paid off.

“We had broad-based growth coming from markets like Zambia. We saw a good turnaround in our Zambia operation. Cameroon, a sterling set of results there, so it’s pretty broad-based. That top-line growth reflected in the earnings which were up 67%...really pleased with the results which were delivered through strong commercial momentum across our markets.”

- Ralph Mupita, CEO - MTN Group

“For us, the big thing is to turnaround SA prepaid. We’ve adjusted our guidance down, particularly on margins to be able to invest more in sales and distribution. We’re making changes to how we think about airtime advance, airtime credit. So, we’re probably going to have another quarter or two of challenges…”

- Ralph Mupita, CEO - MTN Group

“We are using our using tools and approaches at managing in an uncertain global macro, but I think our key areas of focus will be energy, because many of our sites use diesel, and making sure there’s diesel availability..."

- Ralph Mupita, CEO - MTN Group

Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.