The latest results suggest the group’s diversification across 19 markets is becoming important to its growth prospects, allowing faster-growing businesses in markets such as Nigeria and Ghana to offset weaker conditions at home.

Nigeria is aiming for at least low-20% service-revenue growth, while Ghana expects mid-to-upper 30% expansion. South Africa is targeting only low-to-mid-single-digit gains.

“The increasing contribution from our broader markets and growth platforms continued to enhance the resilience and quality of Group earnings,” MTN said in its results on Monday.

Ralph Mupita, the Group’s chief executive officer (CEO) and President, pointed to the same dynamic, saying the company’s performance reflected strong conversion of commercial momentum. “We are encouraged by the record margins delivered in the period as well as the strong cash upstreaming from operations,” he said.

Mupita added that MTN committed almost R20 billion ($1.25 billion) in capital expenditure in H1 to expand its mobile network, connect more homes and modernise IT across the business.

Services beyond traditional voice are also driving growth. Data revenue rose 29.2% in constant currency, while voice revenue grew only 2.4% on that measure. MTN added 6.7% more customers to reach 317.7 million, while active data subscribers climbed 9.1% to 179.3 million.

That enormous customer base is also becoming the foundation for another part of MTN’s expansion: fintech. MTN’s MoMo platform, the group’s mobile money business, had 70.8 million monthly active users by June, while fintech transaction volumes rose 17.2% to 13 billion. Transaction value increased 33.8% in constant currency to $330.5 billion, supported by a network of 1.4 million active agents and 2.3 million active fintech merchants.

According to the results, the fintech ecosystem continued to grow, with MTN’s 70.8 million active mobile money users driving demand for digital financial services. Active agents reached 1.4 million, while fintech merchants rose more than 18% to 2.3 million. Advanced services led fintech revenue growth.

The company is now restructuring its fintech operations in key markets. It completed the structural separation of its Ghana fintech business and is progressing similar processes in Nigeria and Uganda, while deepening its partnership with Ant International, a global digital payments company. MTN describes the moves as part of its effort to accelerate growth in “one of Africa’s leading fintech platforms.”

South Africa, meanwhile, presents a more challenging growth picture. In a highly competitive market marked by constrained liquidity, MTN SA subscribers edged down to 39.5 million, including 28.2 million prepaid customers.

“MTN SA’s prepaid performance was encouraging as we saw improving growth on data, fewer customers using airtime advance for recharging and increased bank recharges,” Mupita said. “The deliberate reset of the prepaid base will deliver higher quality base growth over time.”

Growth in MTN SA’s postpaid, enterprise and wholesale businesses helped drive stronger performance in Q2 2026 than in Q1. This contrast is central to MTN’s Ambition 2030 strategy, which groups the business around three platforms: Connectivity, Fintech and Digital Infrastructure.

The third piece is its planned acquisition of the remaining shares in IHS Towers. MTN says the transaction is expected to be accretive to revenue, earnings and free cash flow over time, although regulatory approvals remain. Nigeria has granted conditional approval requiring MTN to sell down up to 30% of the Nigerian IHS business to local investors.

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