MTN takes R11 billion hit

MTN reported a loss of R11.21 billion for its 2024 financial year as foreign exchange headwinds, particularly the Nigerian naira, weighed on the telecoms giant’s performance.

MTN is Africa’s largest mobile network operator and derives most of its revenue from South Africa and Nigeria, although the group has operations in Uganda and Ghana as well.

The company released its results for the year through December 2024 on Monday, 17 March 2025.

These results revealed that MTN had a challenging financial year, with revenue down nearly 15% to R188 billion.

This was largely due to the poor performance of MTN’s business in Nigeria, which saw its service revenue decline by 44.8% to R40.76 billion in the period.

South Africa, the company’s largest market and the biggest contributor to service revenue, grew by 3.1% to R43.18 billion.

Ghana and Uganda performed very well, with service revenue growth of 12.1% and 17.9%, respectively.

Concerningly, the company’s earnings per share and profit for the period swung into the red in 2024. MTN made a loss per share of 531 cents and a total loss of R11.21 billion for the period.

Despite these disappointing results, MTN said its underlying performance was strong.

The company’s subscriber base grew by 2.2% to 290.9 million, while active data subscribers rose by 7.7% to 157.8 million.

MTN emphasised that the second half of its financial year went far better than the first, as the company saw relative stability in certain key macroeconomic indicators, such as inflation and foreign exchange rates in some of its markets.

“This provided support to our results in the period, with a pleasingly positive momentum in H2 earnings, free cash flow and leverage ratio,” CEO Ralph Mupita said.

He explained that the company’s operating context was characterised by the sharp devaluation of the Nigerian naira and elevated inflation in some markets.

These factors negatively impacted MTN’s earnings in the period, although the company’s forex losses narrowed slightly from 715 cents in 2023 to 598 cents in 2024.

However, looking forward, MTN expects its performance to improve, as its tariff amendments in Nigeria were approved in the new year and are currently being implemented.

Mupita said this enabled the company to exit the year on a strong footing to sustain the encouraging momentum going forward.

Despite these disappointing results, MTN declared a dividend of 345 cents per share for 2024, up from the 330 cents it declared for 2023.