MTN Group reported record first half margins and launched a share buyback programme worth up to R6 billion on August 24, 2026, as the telecom group posted its strongest six month performance in years.
Service revenue climbed 17.5 percent in constant currency to R115.3 billion, while EBITDA before once off items rose almost a quarter to R56 billion, results the company says reflect solid early progress on its newly launched Ambition 2030 strategy.
Breaking Down the MTN Group H1 2026 Results
The MTN Group H1 2026 results showed strength across nearly every major metric. EBITDA margin expanded 4.4 percentage points to 47.1 percent, adjusted headline earnings per share rose 21.3 percent to 793 cents, and equity free cash flow grew 32.7 percent.
Reported headline earnings per share told a different story, falling 5.8 percent to 615 cents, mainly due to a noncash impairment on the group’s equity holdings, a reminder that MTN’s underlying operating momentum and its accounting result do not always move in the same direction in a single reporting period.
Data revenue increased 21 percent to R57.6 billion on a reported basis, and data traffic across MTN’s networks grew nearly 23 percent to 14.3 petabytes.
The group closed the half with 317.7 million customers across 19 markets, up 6.7 percent, with active data subscribers rising 9.1 percent to 179.3 million.
Capital expenditure of nearly R20 billion went toward expanding mobile networks, connecting more homes and modernising IT infrastructure.
Where the Growth Is Actually Coming From
MTN revenue growth Ambition 2030 targets are being met unevenly across the group’s footprint, and that unevenness is becoming a defining feature of the story.
Constant currency service revenue grew 25.7 percent in Nigeria and 32.3 percent in Ghana, both markets MTN singled out for very strong commercial outcomes.
MTN South Africa, by contrast, posted service revenue growth of just 1.5 percent, with EBITDA actually falling 7.7 percent in the home market amid constrained consumer liquidity.
MTN SA’s subscriber base declined marginally to 39.5 million, though management pointed to encouraging signs within that softer headline, including improved data growth and fewer customers relying on airtime advances.
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Growth was also supported by MTN Uganda, MTN Côte d’Ivoire and MTN Cameroon, underscoring how much of the group’s momentum now sits outside its historical home market.
The R6 Billion Buyback
The MTN share buyback R6 billion programme covers approximately 31 million ordinary shares and is set to run for as long as it remains value accretive to shareholders, subject to market conditions.
The buyback sits within MTN’s shareholder remuneration framework under Ambition 2030, which commits to returning between 40 and 60 percent of equity free cash flow to shareholders through a combination of cash dividends and share repurchases.
Coming alongside a 45 percent dividend increase announced earlier in the year, the buyback signals a board confident enough in the group’s cash generation to prioritize direct shareholder returns rather than holding capital back purely for reinvestment.
Fintech Is Where the Real Story Is
The MTN Mobile Money transaction value 2026 numbers point to a business that is increasingly central to MTN’s identity, not a side venture.
Mobile Money monthly active users rose 12.1 percent to 70.8 million, transaction volumes climbed 17.2 percent to 13 billion, and total fintech transaction value jumped 33.8 percent in constant currency to 330.5 billion dollars.
Active fintech agents grew to 1.4 million and active fintech merchants rose more than 18 percent to 2.3 million, with advanced financial services leading overall fintech revenue growth.
MTN’s fintech revenue itself rose 13.3 percent, or 19.3 percent when excluding regulatory related items.
What This Means for Ambition 2030
MTN’s new Ambition 2030 strategy organizes the group around three platforms, connectivity, fintech and digital infrastructure, replacing the Ambition 2025 framework under which MTN passed 300 million customers and scaled its fintech ecosystem substantially.
The group is also advancing its planned acquisition of the remaining shares in tower company IHS Holdings, a deal that has already cleared several regulatory approvals, including from Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, and is expected to close in the second half of 2026.
On a pro forma basis, MTN says the IHS transaction would be accretive to revenue, profit after tax and adjusted headline earnings per share.
CEO Ralph Mupita described the half as reflecting disciplined execution and the quality of MTN’s diversified portfolio, while acknowledging that geopolitical developments, foreign exchange volatility and inflationary pressures remain areas the group is watching closely.
With the buyback launched, the IHS deal progressing and fintech scaling rapidly outside South Africa, MTN’s H1 2026 results look less like a one off strong quarter and more like early evidence that its diversified, fintech weighted growth model under Ambition 2030 is starting to pay off.
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