MTN Group plans to deepen investment in home internet connections in Nigeria, betting that demand from households will become its next major growth driver in its largest market, according to Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita.
Speaking during the telecoms group’s third-quarter 2025 earnings call in November, Mupita said Nigeria remains significantly underpenetrated in home connectivity compared with more mature markets such as South Africa, creating a long runway for expansion.
“The big opportunity we now see is the home,” Mupita said. “Nigeria is five years to a decade behind where South Africa is on home. So we see that opportunity to allocate capital and to capture growth.”
The strategy marks a shift from MTN Nigeria’s historical reliance on mobile voice and data growth toward fixed wireless access (FWA) and home broadband services, as rising data consumption, remote work and digital services reshape usage patterns in Africa’s most populous country.
MTN Nigeria delivered one of the strongest performances within the group in the nine months to September 2025, with service revenue rising 57.1% year-on-year and accelerating to 62.9% growth in the third quarter, supported by price adjustments, strong data demand and improved macroeconomic conditions
Data revenue in Nigeria jumped 72.7% during the period, while data traffic rose 36.3%, underscoring what Mupita described as “structural demand” for connectivity even after tariff increases.
MTN Nigeria’s EBITDA margin expanded to 51.3%, up 15 percentage points, helping the business return to positive retained earnings and resume dividend payments after a difficult 18–24 months marked by currency volatility and regulatory pressure.
For the group, the turnaround in Nigeria has become central to its broader growth narrative. MTN Group reported constant-currency service revenue growth of 22.6% for the nine-month period, with Nigeria and Ghana leading performance across its markets.
While MTN already holds a leading position in Nigeria’s mobile market, Mupita said future gains would increasingly come from connecting homes rather than solely expanding handset-based usage.
“Yes, we have a good network, but that’s not the only advantage we have,” he said. “Our commercial execution in the trade has also been pretty strong, and we’re giving customers good value for money.”
The company plans to deploy a mix of technologies, including fixed wireless access, to reach households faster and more efficiently, rather than relying on large-scale fibre rollouts that can be capital-intensive and slow to monetise.
The focus on home connectivity in Nigeria mirrors MTN’s broader ambition to “win the home” across key markets, though Mupita stressed that execution would differ by country, depending on infrastructure, affordability and demand dynamics.
In Nigeria, where broadband penetration remains low relative to population size, MTN sees home internet as a way to lock in higher-value customers, stabilise revenue and extend its growth cycle beyond mobile price increases.
The push comes as MTN Group maintains a strong balance sheet, with net debt to EBITDA improving to 0.4 times by the end of September, giving it room to fund network expansion while sustaining dividends.
As Nigeria’s digital economy expands and households demand faster, more reliable connections, MTN’s bet on the home could determine how long the country continues to anchor the group’s growth story.
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