Nigeria’s telecommunications sector delivered its most impressive financial results in years in 2025, with MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria combining for nearly $4.85 billion in revenue and posting dramatic profit recoveries. But buried within the celebratory numbers is a structural contradiction that tells a different story about who is really benefiting.
MTN Nigeria reported total revenue of N5.2 trillion for the year ended December 31, 2025, a 52.9 percent increase year-on-year. Data revenue surged 74.5 percent to N2.78 trillion, overtaking voice revenue which grew 42.1 percent to N1.85 trillion, confirming that broadband usage has replaced calls as the company’s primary growth engine. Airtel Nigeria posted a 52.2 percent year-on-year revenue increase to $1.13 billion for the nine months ended December 2025, also driven by data earnings, with Nigeria remaining Airtel Africa’s largest and most strategically critical market.
MTN Nigeria’s profit after tax reached N1.1 trillion for 2025, a sharp turnaround from the N400 billion loss recorded in 2024, when foreign exchange shocks eroded the company’s earnings. The Board has proposed a total dividend of N20 per share for the year, combining an interim payment with a proposed final dividend, subject to shareholder approval.
The data metrics are striking. Average monthly data consumption per MTN subscriber climbed to 13.1 gigabytes, while smartphone penetration on its network reached 66.1 percent. Airtel Nigeria customers consumed 10.7 gigabytes per month, with smartphone penetration at 54.1 percent. Nigeria’s telecoms sector as a whole contributed N18.5 trillion to real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2025, accounting for 8.3 percent of the country’s total economic output.
Yet despite generating these volumes, Nigerian subscribers remain among the least profitable per user of any MTN market on the continent. Even after a 50 percent tariff hike approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in early 2025, MTN Nigeria’s average revenue per user (ARPU) reached $3.02, ranking 12th among all MTN markets globally. Ghana, by comparison, generates $5.60 ARPU, making it MTN’s most profitable market by that measure.
That gap explains why MTN is now making one of the most consequential bets in African telecom history. The company has launched a $6.2 billion proposal to fully acquire IHS Towers, which would give it 100 percent ownership of the infrastructure underpinning its Nigerian network. Nigeria’s communications ministry has indicated it will assess the deal’s implications for competition and infrastructure control. If approved, the acquisition would dramatically reduce MTN Nigeria’s tower lease costs, the single largest operational expense dragging on margins, and could reshape the economics of mobile connectivity for the country’s 140 million combined subscribers.
The NCC said the tariff increase has already unlocked more than $1 billion in new infrastructure investment in 2025 alone. “The mere act of approving the increase has unlocked investment,” said NCC Executive Vice Chairman Aminu Maida. “This wasn’t happening in 2022, 2023, or 2024.” Whether that investment translates into meaningfully better service for consumers still paying among the highest effective rates relative to income on the continent remains the central unresolved question in Nigeria’s data boom story.
