MTN hopes that new tariff hikes in Nigeria will be a key step in helping to steady the group’s largest operation after almost two years of pain caused by a weakened naira.
After a six-year campaign by Nigeria’s mobile network operators, including MTN, the country’s government last month approved a 50% increase in mobile service prices for the first time in more than a decade.
“The approval of tariff adjustments by regulators in Nigeria, announced in January 2025, was a significant milestone in ensuring the long-term sustainability of our business and the telecom industry in the country,” said the group.
The tariff hike is part of an ongoing effort to right-size an industry devastated by inflation and a historic currency devaluation.
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Tariffs had been unchanged for 11 years in Nigeria. In 2019 call tariffs stood at about 3.3 US cents, dropping to about 1c now. Over the same period, mobile telecom revenue in Nigeria is expected to fall to about $3.05bn this year from $6.39bn in 2019.
MTN said its Nigeria business had started to implement the tariff adjustments, “which represent an important step towards addressing the impacts of the prevailing economic challenges on the operation”.
This comes as the group said it expects to report a decrease in headline earnings per share (HEPS) of 59%-79%, or 186c-289c. This translates to 66c-129c for the year ending December 2024.
HEPS, which strip out the effect of one-off financial events, were affected by hyperinflation adjustments, foreign exchange losses, deferred tax charges and “other operational items”.
The group said its financial performance in the year was affected by several external factors including the negative effect of local currency devaluations, particularly the naira. This included translation effects and forex losses in their financials.
“An additional factor affecting our results is the operational challenges in Sudan due to the ongoing conflict in the country,” said the group.
MTN shares closed the trading session 1% weaker on Thursday at R117.28. Since the start of the year, MTN shares are up 26%.
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