MTN Group, Africa’s largest mobile operator, says its Francophone Africa portfolio maintained its improving trajectory in the nine months to September 2026, delivering 9.4% service revenue growth, ahead of the region’s blended average inflation rate of 2.4%.
The mobile operator reported another strong set of results during the period under review, supported by revenue growth across its wider African footprint.
MTN Group identified its Francophone portfolio as one of its growth markets, reporting that customer numbers increased by 6.4% to 40.4 million. Active data subscribers grew by 11% to 23.1 million, while the number of monthly active Mobile Money users increased by 6.0% to 17.7 million.
Data revenue grew by 25.4%, while voice revenue declined by 4.9% and fintech revenue increased by 7.7%. EBITDA for the region was up 11.4% year-on-year (YoY), with the EBITDA margin expanding by 0.6 percentage points (pp) to 36.5%.
Group president and CEO Ralph Mupita says: “Performance in the Francophone markets was also pleasing, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon.”
He adds: “Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon remained important contributors to the region’s performance, while momentum in Benin improved materially towards the end of the period.
“Across Francophone Africa, our priorities remain to sustain the commercial recovery, accelerate data adoption and monetisation, improve fintech performance and maintain disciplined cost and capital allocation.
“We will continue to invest selectively in network capacity and coverage to strengthen customer experience and support sustainable growth.”
Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon performance
Commenting on the performance of individual operating units in the portfolio, Mupita says MTN Côte d’Ivoire sustained its operational and financial turnaround during the period.
Service revenue increased by 16.1% year-to-date (YTD), supported by data revenue growth of 45.4%.
“EBITDA increased by 27.5%, with EBITDA margins improving by 3.4 percentage points to 39.6%. Usage and the active data subscriber base continued to improve YoY, while the customer base grew by 3.4% YoY to 15.8 million, although it declined by 1.6% quarter-on-quarter in Q3 2026,” Mupita notes.
“We continue to invest in capital expenditure (capex) for additional 5G and 4G capacity and coverage expansion. These investments are intended to support continued growth and improve the customer experience.”
Regarding MTN Cameroon, Mupita says the business sustained double-digit service revenue growth, increasing by 10.7% in Q3 and 11.4% YTD.
Data revenue increased by 24.4% YTD, while voice revenue grew by 1.5% and fintech revenue increased by 3.4%.
“MTN Cameroon retained its market share leadership, continuing to invest in network capacity and coverage,” he said.
Nigeria and Ghana drive group growth
Across the wider group, MTN reported strong performances in Nigeria and Ghana, alongside improving contributions from its other markets.
The telco says MTN Nigeria’s growth momentum strengthened materially in Q3.
Service revenue increased by 19.7%, compared with 13.2% in Q2, and exited September at 21.6%.
“Q3 EBITDA increased by 32.8%, supported by stronger revenue growth and disciplined cost management. The restoration of Airtime Advance supported an improving commercial trajectory, with further recovery expected through the remainder of the year,” MTN says.
During the period under review, MTN Ghana sustained strong, broad-based growth.
The company says: “Q3 service revenue increased by 35.7% and EBITDA by 42.1%, with growth supported by data, voice, digital services and Mobile Money.
“The strong performance in Nigeria and Ghana, together with improving contributions from the wider portfolio, underpinned the Group’s Q3 acceleration.”
Fintech performance improves
MTN notes that fintech performance improved during the quarter. Excluding Airtime Advance, Mobile Money revenue increased by 18.5% in the first nine months and accelerated to 19.9% in Q3.
“Advanced services remained the principal growth engine, increasing by 32.4%, while fintech transaction value rose by 36.9% to US$512.5 billion.
“Total fintech growth remained below the Group’s medium-term target, and execution remains focused on rebuilding Airtime Advance in Nigeria and sustaining advanced-services momentum,” MTN says.
Overall, the company says demand across its markets remained strong.
“At 30 September 2026, MTN served 323 million customers, including 181.7 million active data subscribers and 70.3 million active Mobile Money users. Data traffic increased by 27.3% to 22,754 petabytes,” the company said.
Group's nine-month highlights
Other key highlights for MTN Group during the period included:
Service revenue increased by 9.9% to R176.2 billion on a reported basis, representing growth of 17.2% in constant currency.
Data revenue increased by 20.9% to R88.9 billion on a reported basis, or 28.2% in constant currency.
Fintech revenue increased by 1.6% to R22.6 billion on a reported basis, or 12.7% in constant currency.
Voice revenue declined by 3.1% to R46.0 billion on a reported basis, although it increased by 3.4% in constant currency.
Total customer numbers increased by 7.2% to 322.9 million.
Active data subscribers grew by 9.6% to 181.7 million.
Data traffic increased by 27.3% to 22,754 petabytes.
Mobile Money monthly active users increased by 9.3% to 70.3 million.
Fintech transaction volumes grew by 20.1% to 20.3 billion, while fintech transaction value increased by 36.9% to US$512.5 billion.
Share
