MTN Nigeria paid ₦190.9bn in income tax in Q1’26, as data revenue doubled to ₦826bn

MTN Nigeria’s revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2026, came in at ₦1.498 trillion, up 41.6% from the ₦1.058 trillion recorded in the same period a year earlier.

That is an additional ₦440 billion in revenue generated in just one quarter. Operating profit surged 84.5% to ₦632.3 billion, and profit before tax grew 169.6% to ₦546.4 billion.

This shows that the company has been fighting its way back from two difficult years, battered by naira devaluation, surging lease costs, and a tax environment that kept tightening. The first quarter of 2026 is the clearest sign yet that the recovery has arrived.

Meanwhile, after the taxman took his share, the company was left with ₦355.5 billion in profit, nearly three times what it made in Q1 2025. Earnings per share increased from ₦6.37 to ₦16.95 over 12 months.

Profit for the three months ended March 31, 2026: ₦355.5 billion. The same period last year: ₦133.7 billion.

Read also: MTN Nigeria CEO, Karl Toriola receives performance reward in shares worth $335k

Data is now the business for MTN Nigeria

For years, voice was the foundation of MTN Nigeria’s revenue. That is no longer true. Data revenue for Q1 2026 reached ₦826.1 billion, against ₦450.7 billion from voice calls. A year earlier, the gap was narrower: ₦529 billion in data, ₦353 billion in voice.

The shift is structural and accelerating.

Mobile data, fixed broadband, and data bundles are now generating almost twice what voice does, and the trajectory shows no sign of reversing. Value-added services, a category that includes mobile money and airtime lending, added another ₦64.1 billion, up from ₦35.9 billion in Q1 2025.

The Consumer Business Unit remained dominant, contributing ₦1.278 trillion of the total ₦1.498 trillion in revenue. The Enterprise Business Unit brought in ₦160.2 billion, while the Wholesale Business Unit added ₦59.8 billion.

CEO, Karl Toriola

What the tax numbers say

MTN Nigeria paid ₦190.9 billion in income tax for a single quarter, at an effective rate of 34.94%. The current tax charge was ₦229.3 billion, comprising ₦199.7 billion in company income tax and ₦29.6 billion in development levy, a charge that did not appear in the same period last year.

A deferred tax credit of ₦38.4 billion partially offset the total.

The net result is a company whose quarterly tax bill is larger than the full-year revenue of most businesses listed on the Nigerian Exchange.

Building at speed

MTN’s capital expenditure for the quarter was ₦428 billion, up from ₦174.3 billion in Q1 2025. That is a 145% increase in infrastructure spending in twelve months. Network infrastructure on the balance sheet grew from ₦1.527 trillion to ₦1.643 trillion, and capital work-in-progress expanded from ₦153.6 billion to ₦280.7 billion.

The company has ₦997.4 billion in committed but uncapitalised capital expenditure on its books, a figure that suggests the build programme will continue to drive spending through the rest of the year.

MTN has said this will be funded through operating cash flows and existing borrowing facilities.

When the share price writes its own story

MTN Nigeria’s stock rose from ₦511 at the start of the year to ₦760 by March 31, 2026, a 48.7% gain that lifted market capitalisation from ₦10.73 trillion to ₦15.96 trillion. It also created a problem inside the income statement.

The company operates a phantom share scheme for employees, where the payout is tied to the share price. As the stock climbed, the liability the company must settle rose with it.

Share-based expense for the quarter came in at ₦33.8 billion, compared to ₦3.2 billion in Q1 2025, a tenfold increase. That single line item is the main reason total employee costs jumped from ₦24.1 billion to ₦65.8 billion year-on-year.

The share-based payments liability on the balance sheet grew from ₦44.4 billion to ₦77.9 billion in three months.

Borrowings fall, leases loom large

Total borrowings fell from ₦527.7 billion at end-2025 to ₦377.7 billion by March 31, 2026, after the company repaid ₦154 billion without drawing new debt. Notably, MTN Nigeria has now fully repaid all its foreign currency-denominated borrowings, removing its exposure to dollar interest rate movements entirely.

Lease liabilities, however, remain the dominant debt on the balance sheet at ₦2.38 trillion, driven by long-term contracts on tower space and network infrastructure.

Current liabilities as a whole total ₦2.43 trillion against current assets of ₦1.36 trillion. The directors note that the company generated ₦764.1 billion in net operating cash flows during the quarter, and characterise the net current liabilities position as a classification issue rather than a liquidity concern.

Cash and cash equivalents at March 31, 2026: ₦506.7 billion. Net operating cash flow for the quarter: ₦764.1 billion.

MoMo doubles its deposits in Q1 2026

Mobile money customer deposits under MoMo Payment Service Bank nearly doubled in a single quarter, moving from ₦9.8 billion at the end of 2025 to ₦18.9 billion by March 31, 2026. The company attributes the growth to higher wallet utilisation and shifts in customer funding behaviour rather than any change in product terms.

MoMo remains a small contributor to group financials relative to the core telecom business, but the pace of deposit growth in Q1 is the fastest recorded in recent quarters.