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Tag: Network as a service

As part of MTN Group’s ambition to lead in the provision of reliable, high-quality home broadband services, the company is pleased to announce the elevation of Group Home into a dedicated business function within Group Commercial. To lead this strategic focus area, Ankur Bajpai has been appointed Executive: Group Home Broadband, effective 1 April 2025.
This move reinforces MTN’s commitment to strengthening its position in the broadband market by ensuring executional focus, accelerating innovation, and delivering exceptional customer experiences. The dedicated function will play a critical role in driving market penetration while achieving sustainable growth through operational excellence.
Ankur brings over 21 years of experience in business strategy and advanced analytics, with extensive expertise in the telecommunications sector. For the past seven years, he has been an integral part of MTN Group, contributing significantly to its growth and innovation efforts.
Throughout his career, Ankur has worked across three continents and travelled to over 80 countries, giving him a rich global perspective. Before joining MTN, he held leadership roles at Etisalat Group, including Director of Commercial Intelligence across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and Assistant Vice President for Corporate Marketing at Etisalat DB. He also held key roles at Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications.
Ankur holds an MBA in Strategic Management and Managerial Finance from Cardiff Business School in Wales and an Advanced Diploma in Web-Centric Curriculum from the National Institute of Information Technology in India.
As Executive Group Home Broadband, Ankur will lead the development and execution of MTN’s home broadband strategy, with a strong focus on Fibre to the Home (FTTH) and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) solutions.
“We are excited to see Ankur take on this role at a time when home connectivity is more critical than ever. His leadership will help us bring practical, high-quality solutions to more households across our markets. I’m looking forward to working with him on this journey,” said Selorm Adadevoh, Group Chief Commercial Officer.
Please join us in congratulating Ankur on his new appointment and wishing him continued success as he leads the next chapter of MTN’s home broadband journey.

Driven to extend digital and financial inclusion across Africa, MTN Group and Airtel Africa have entered into agreements to share network infrastructure in Uganda and Nigeria, while ensuring compliance with local regulatory and statutory requirements.
These sharing agreements target improved network cost efficiencies, expanded coverage and the provision of enhanced mobile services to millions of customers, particularly those in remote and rural areas who do not yet fully enjoy the benefits of a modern connected life.
MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita said operators on the continent were seeing sustained demand for data services: “As MTN, we are driven by the vision of delivering digital solutions that drive Africa’s progress. We continue to see strong structural demand for digital and financial services across our markets. To meet this demand, we continue to invest in coverage and capacity to ensure high-quality connectivity for our customers. That said, there are opportunities within regulatory frameworks for sharing resources to drive higher efficiencies and improve returns.”
Airtel Africa Chief Executive Officer Sunil Taldar said: “As we compete fiercely in the market on the strength of our brand, services and our offerings we are building common infrastructure, with in the permissible regulatory framework, to provide a more robust and extensive digital highway to drive digital and financial inclusion at the same time avoiding duplication of expensive infrastructure to drive operational efficiencies and benefits for our customers”.
The initiative is part of a growing global trend toward network sharing. By collaborating, telecoms operators can explore innovative and pro-competitive solutions to improve service quality while managing costs more effectively. The sharing of infrastructure has the potential to enable the delivery of world-class, reliable mobile services to more and more customers across Africa.
Following the conclusion of agreements in Uganda and Nigeria, MTN and Airtel Africa are exploring various opportunities in other markets, including Congo-Brazzaville, Rwanda and Zambia. Among the types of agreements considered are RAN sharing and those aimed at establishing commercial and technical agreements for fibre infrastructure sharing and, if necessary, the construction of fibre networks.
MTN Group and Airtel Africa are dedicated to working with other mobile operators within the countries in which they have a presence to achieve the advantages of network sharing. Throughout this process, the parties will continue to function as independent market entities and will compete freely in shared markets. This engagement does not preclude the parties from collaborating with other operators in any respective market.

- Solid underlying performance with strong H2 financial results. Service revenue, earnings, cashflow and leverage all improved in the second half of the year
- Service revenue up by 14% in constant-currency terms; down 15% in reported rand terms
- MTN Nigeria service revenue up by 35.6% and expected to increase in 2025 after tariff adjustments implemented in February 2025
- MTN South Africa service revenue up by 3.1% with reported EBITDA margins strong at 37.4%
- Fintech service revenue up by 28.5%, with transaction value up by 35% in constant currency at US$321bn
- Fintech advanced services revenue (including banktech, remittance, payments) up 52%
- Group medium-term guidance maintained as 2025 starts on a strong footing
- Dividend at 345cps increased on positive second half momentum in earnings, free cash flow and leverage. The MTN Board anticipates paying a minimum ordinary dividend of 370cps for the 2025 financial year
MTN Group on Monday reported a solid underlying operational and financial performance for 2024 – and a particularly strong second half. This strong performance was affected by a sharp drop in the value of the currency of one of our largest markets, Nigeria; and impairments in conflict-hit Sudan
This meant that even though the Group’s service revenue and earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITDA) in constant-currency terms grew by around 14% and 10% respectively, they were negatively affected in reported rand terms.
In the year to 31 December 2024, service revenue of R178 billion was down by some 15% in reported terms, and reported EBITDA (before once-off items) of R60 billion was a third lower than it was in 2023. Basic earnings per share swung by 758 cents in 2024 to a loss of 531 cents.
Adjusted headline earnings per share (HEPS) decreased by 32% to 816 cents, impacted mainly by the sharp devaluation in the naira. With a relatively more stable naira in the second half of 2024 and stronger results from MTN South Africa, second half adjusted HEPS showed strong momentum.
The Board of Directors declared a dividend of 345 cents a share (up from 330 cents in 2023) as the Group reported strong commercial momentum and maintained its guidance over the medium term. The Board, further, anticipates paying a minimum ordinary dividend of 370cps for the 2025 financial year.
We serve 291 million subscribers in 16 markets and progressed key strategic priorities and sustained a healthy financial position as well as balance sheet flexibility in 2024.
“Alongside execution of our commercial strategies, our continued capital investment of R30 billion to strengthen the quality and capacity of our networks enabled us to capture the opportunities in data and fintech across our markets,” said Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita, adding that data traffic accelerated by a third, as data subscribers grew by 8% to 158 million active users.
The volume of fintech transactions on MTN’s networks rose by 15% to more than 20 billion valued at over US$320 billion, while the number of active Mobile Money (MoMo) users rose by just less than 1% to 63 million, slowed by initiatives in key fintech markets to enhance the quality, stickiness and profitability of our overall fintech ecosystem.
Data revenue decreased by 12% on a reported basis, but increased by almost 22% in constant-currency terms. Fintech revenue increased by 11% on a reported basis, but by almost 29% in constant currency. As part of our expense efficiency programme (EEP), we realised sustainable savings of R3.8 billion in 2024.
Performance was underpinned by adhering to disciplined capital allocation as well as expense efficiencies. We are well on track to achieve our EEP target of R7-8 billion between 2024 and 2026.
MTN South Africa sustained a resilient overall performance, with service revenue growth of 3.1% to R43.2 billion for the year, underpinned by improved network availability and commercial initiatives. In the latter part of the year, the business delivered some encouraging acceleration in key commercial metrics, with prepaid data revenue returning to growth from November.
MTN Group advanced the execution of our key strategic initiatives in the year. These included the signing of definitive agreements with Mastercard for a minority investment into the Group Fintech structure, as well as the disposal of MTN Afghanistan, MTN Guinea-Bissau and MTN Guinea-Conakry, which further enhanced the Group’s focus and risk profile.
In Nigeria, we renegotiated tower lease contracts, which allow MTN Nigeria to better manage adverse macroeconomic impacts on the business. In Ghana and Uganda, we increased local ownership in our operations. In South Africa, we extended the MTN Zakhele Futhi broad-based black economic empowerment transaction.
“This underscores our dedication to transformation and creating shared value and remains integral to our future success,” Mupita said of the Group that celebrated 30 years of operations in 2024.
Other shared value wins included further reductions in the Group’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions as well as widening access to broadband internet access to cover 93% of the population in our markets. Advancing broadband in rural and remote areas is critical to our work to extend digital and financial inclusion across Africa.
In terms of our economic value-added to the communities we serve, MTN contributed approximately R155 billion in the year, including around R206 million in corporate social investment programmes across our host nations.
Looking ahead, Mupita said although there remained some macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties in the near term, he was encouraged by trends in various indicators. These included inflation (which showed signs of abating in the second half of 2024), reduced forex volatility (particularly of the naira), as well as the tariff adjustments in Nigeria which we started to implement in February 2025. These prompted MTN Nigeria to re-instate its medium-term guidance.
“MTN Group is well positioned to capture the exciting opportunities in our markets and deliver on our medium-term objectives to sustain growth, create shared value in nation states and communities, and unlock value for our stakeholders,” he said.
SENS: https://irhosted.profiledata.co.za/mtngroup/2019_feeds/SensPopUp.aspx?id=507535

MTN Group Limited (“MTN”) announces the conclusion of the sale of its operations in Guinea (also known as “MTN Guinea-Conakry”), to the State of Guinea, on 30 December 2024. This transaction aligns with MTN’s focus on portfolio optimization and simplification, as part of the Ambition 2025 strategy.
MTN Group President and CEO, Ralph Mupita, stated: “This milestone marks a new phase for MTN Guinea-Conakry under local ownership, and MTN thanks the staff, customers, regulators and broader stakeholders in Guinea for the support during the time MTN has been operational in the country. Concluding this transaction is in line with the strategy to simplify the portfolio and allocating capital to markets where we can make a difference as MTN and deliver long-term growth and returns.”

MTN Group is pleased to announce the official commercial launch of 5G networks in Benin and the Republic of Congo, reflecting our commitment to delivering leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress and enabling the benefits of a modern connected life for all.
The deployment of this revolutionary technology represents a significant step in transforming how communities and businesses across Africa connect, innovate and grow. Beyond dramatically faster speeds and lower latency, 5G is a catalyst for meaningful progress, offering new opportunities in education, healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture and entrepreneurship.
By accelerating digital and financial inclusion, MTN is working to ensure that technology serves as a force for good across the continent.
MTN Group Chief Technology and Information Officer Mazen Mroue said: “The launch of 5G in Benin and Congo-Brazzaville underscores MTN’s role in shaping the digital future of Africa. 5G is more than a technological advancement — it is the foundation for innovation, economic growth, and the creation of new opportunities. We are pleased to support the evolution of a connected, inclusive and prosperous Africa.”
MTN’s 5G journey began in June 2020 with the first commercial launch in South Africa. Since then, we have expanded our 5G offering in Africa to Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia, and now Congo-Brazzaville and Benin. Trials are underway in South Sudan.
In 2023, MTN rolled out 2,251 5G sites. In the first half of 2024, we added another 829 5G sites.
As we work to secure the spectrum and licences required to extend our 5G footprint, we remain focused on unlocking the potential of technology to create shared value, foster innovation, and drive sustainable growth across Africa.

MTN marks three decades of operations, celebrating a legacy of connecting people, changing lives, and driving economic growth across South Africa and the African continent.
“As we reflect on this significant milestone, we express our sincere gratitude to all our stakeholders, past and present, across multiple jurisdictions, for their support,” said MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita. “We couldn’t have achieved this remarkable success without you.”
Since its inception in 1994, MTN has evolved from a small South African start-up with 20 employees into a global telecommunications leader, employing over 17,500 individuals representing more than 70 nationalities across 18 diverse markets.
In South Africa, MTN’s impact has been profound. The company’s network now reaches 97% of the population, providing a foundation for digital inclusion and economic empowerment. By investing in cutting-edge technologies like 4G and 5G, MTN has ensured that South Africa remains at the forefront of technological advancement. A recent study by KPMG showed that MTN South Africa’s contribution to the country’s GDP is substantial, making it a key player in the national economy.
The evolution of handsets and the proliferation of apps have democratised access to information and essential services, from financial solutions to healthcare, education, and entertainment. This has been a game-changer for individuals and businesses alike.
MTN’s influence extends far beyond South Africa. In 2023, the MTN Group recorded over R220 billion (more than US$11 billion) in revenue, a testament to its market leadership and the growing demand for digital services across Africa. This success has driven the company’s market capitalisation to over R150 billion, solidifying its position as one of the continent’s most valuable companies.
Across Africa, MTN connects millions, empowering them with essential communication tools and access to vital services. More than 149 million people rely on MTN’s network for data access, fuelling a digital transformation that is reshaping industries and societies. Additionally, MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) provides over 65 million individuals with access to financial services, driving financial inclusion and economic empowerment in underserved communities.
MTN’s commitment to socio-economic development is evident everywhere. In 2023, the Group’s total tax contribution to governments across markets was nearly R62 billion (over US$3.3 billion), supporting vital public services and infrastructure development. MTN’s operations also generated some R159 billion in economic value, creating jobs, stimulating economic activity, and fostering digital innovation.
From the outset, the Group has been driven to make a social impact. Launched in 2001, the first MTN Foundation had an annual budget of R22 million. In 2023, MTN spent ten times that – R220 million – in corporate social responsibility across markets, with a special focus on developing digital skills to enable the digital economy.
Furthermore, both MTN Group and MTN South Africa have achieved Level 1 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment status, underscoring their commitment to diversity, inclusion, and social transformation.
MTN’s dedication to giving back is embodied in the annual “21 Days of Y’ello Care” initiative, which has been extended to 30 days this year to commemorate the 30th anniversary. Kicking off on 01 June 2024 under the theme “Learn Today, Lead Tomorrow: Education for Rural and Remote Communities,” this initiative mobilises MTN employees across the continent to dedicate their time and resources to enhance educational opportunities. This year, the focus is on bridging the educational divide in rural and remote areas, providing digital learning tools, and supporting educational infrastructure to empower the next generation of leaders within these communities.
MTN’s 30-year journey is a testament to the transformative power of technology and the unwavering spirit of innovation. Looking to the future, MTN remains dedicated to bridging the digital divide, empowering individuals and communities, and driving Africa’s sustainable and inclusive progress through cutting-edge digital solutions.

MTN Group reported a resilient underlying operating performance for 2023 in the face of tough macro headwinds, declaring a total dividend of 330 cents per share. Inflation remained elevated in several key markets and the sharp devaluation of the Nigerian naira impacted reported results for both MTN Nigeria and MTN Group.
Amid sustained high demand for data and fintech services, MTN Group increased the number of active data subscribers by more than 9% to 150 million – half the total subscriber base – and active Mobile Money (MoMo) users by 5% to 72.5 million. Total subscribers increased to 295 million across the Group’s markets.
In the year to end-December 2023, data traffic on MTN’s networks (excluding joint ventures) grew by more than a third, with usage up to an average of more than 6GB per user per month. To sustain this growth, as well as network coverage and quality, MTN deployed capital expenditure (excluding leases) of R41 billion in the year.
The volume of fintech transactions also increased by around a third to 17.6 billion, with the value of transactions across the fintech platform up at US$272 billion, driven by growth of advanced services in payments, banktech and remittance solutions.
In South Africa, where the business faced loadshedding challenges, subsidiary MTN South Africa deployed R10 billion of capex to drive network capacity expansion and power resilience. More than R2.6 billion of this was investment in power and security resilience. By the end of the year, network availability across the entire network reached around 95%. For the sites where we had completed our resilience investment, we recorded network availability of more than 98%.
MTN South Africa reported solid growth in the consumer postpaid, enterprise and wholesale businesses. In the second half of the year there were also sequential improvements in the consumer prepaid business.
Strategic delivery
In the year, MTN Group made good strategic progress in the development of our fintech and fibre businesses. A key highlight was concluding an agreement for payment network processor Mastercard to invest up to US$200 million for a minority stake in MTN Group Fintech at a valuation of US$5.2 billion.
“We are excited about this partnership, particularly the commercial agreements, which we expect to support the accelerated growth of our fintech business,” said MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita. “In 2023, we also advanced our work to structurally separate the fibre business, Bayobab, with engagements to secure regulatory clearances in key markets being the main priority.”
In the year, Bayobab and Africa50 partnered to develop Project East2West, a terrestrial fibre optic cable network to help bridge Africa’s connectivity gap by improving broadband access for the continent’s landlocked countries in particular.
Among the Group’s other strategic progress highlights were the 13.1% absolute reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions. This is part of our environmental commitment to reach Net Zero emissions by 2040. We also finalised the sale of MTN Afghanistan, which completed the Group’s exit of our consolidated subsidiaries in the Middle East.
Resilient results
In the year, MTN Group’s finances withstood a challenging external environment, marked by elevated inflation (averaging a blended 16.7%), forex volatility and paucity, and ongoing political tensions in some markets, most notably in Sudan.
In constant currency terms, MTN Group service revenue grew 13.5% to R210 billion, with data revenue making up R84 billion and voice revenue contributing R83 billion. Fintech revenue totalled R21 billion.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew by almost 10% in constant currency terms to R90 billion. The Group delivered expense efficiencies of R2.6 billion and kept key debt ratios within covenant levels.
Outlook and priorities
Looking ahead, Mupita said MTN remained focused on executing on Ambition 2025: sustaining operational momentum, accelerating the platforms strategy, driving expense and capital efficiencies, and continuing to strengthen the balance sheet.
“We are anticipating that the macro conditions in our trading environment will persist in 2024, with naira volatility and elevated inflation the key challenges we will need to navigate. MTN plans to invest R35-39 billion in 2024 to position the company to capture the structural demand for data and fintech services across Africa,” he said.
“We maintain our overall medium-term guidance framework, however simplifying our objective for fintech,” Mupita said, adding that MTN was encouraged by the outlook for the fintech business, given the solid growth in advanced services. “The partnership with Mastercard positions the business well to scale faster and we are excited about the commercial launches of card issuance, acceptance and remittances across the footprint.”
As of 19 March 2024, Bayobab Group, a subsidiary of MTN Group, has successfully restored its operations, recovering over 3 Terabits per second (Tbps) of capacity across our footprint.
Although the recent subsea cable disruptions on 14 March 2024 presented challenges, we have demonstrated our capabilities to maintain a resilient network and efficiently reroute traffic.
Throughout this challenging period, we prioritised the restoration of services by swiftly activating new cables to increase inter-connectivity and establish alternative routes, thereby bolstering our network resilience.
This approach solidifies our commitment to prioritising network reliability, and our dedication to connecting Africa and our customers as quickly as possible marking the final stretch toward connecting all our valued customers. Bayobab’s ecosystem facilitates secure and scalable global traffic within Africa and the rest of the world serving 19 MTN markets, third-party Mobile Network Operators, Technology corporations and other Telecoms Service Providers.
MTN Group’s Bayobab is working with its partners on the coordination of repair work to damaged underwater digital communication cables along the West Coast of Africa.
As confirmed by their consortium partners, on 14 March 2024 four subsea cables were cut. They are WACS, ACE, SAT3 and MainOne.
Bayobab is also working with partners to mitigate the impact of the damage by rerouting traffic and enabling more circuits.
ACE and WACS have jointly initiated the repair process by mobilising a cable ship for a collaborative repair effort. While investigation and repair efforts are underway, Bayobab’s strategy focuses on successfully rerouting traffic, leveraging our extensive network, and collaborating with industry partners.
Our network resiliency allows for the swift activation of new cables, facilitating faster rerouting and bolstering network resilience. By activating new cables, we quickly increase interconnectivity and establish alternative routes.
Additionally, we are working with the cable consortiums and partners to enhance interconnection along both the west and east coasts, with further interconnections between WACS and Equiano, and the introduction of the end-to-end connection between WACS on the west coast and EASSy on the east coast.
We have already made progress in restoring service in some affected regions and remain committed to achieving full recovery as expeditiously as possible.
Recognising the critical importance of network reliability, we work to continuously strengthen our infrastructure to mitigate future disruptions.
We sincerely appreciate your understanding and patience during this period.
Bayobab Group acknowledges the ongoing disruptions affecting connectivity services in several West African countries, due to breaks in multiple major undersea cables. Recognising the critical importance of consistent internet and communication services, we are fully committed to swiftly addressing these disruptions.
To mitigate the impact on our customers in the affected countries, our operations are actively working to reroute traffic through alternative network paths and engaging with our consortium partners to expedite the repair process for the damaged cables. Leveraging our robust and resilient network infrastructure, we aim to minimise service interruptions and maintain connectivity.
We thank you for your patience and understanding as we work diligently to resolve this situation.