MTN Nigeria Accelerates Network Investments with ₦757.4bn Capex Surge to Strengthen Service Quality Amid Economic Pressures

MTN Nigeria’s unprecedented ₦757.4 billion capex deployment in 9M 2025 was channelled into four critical infrastructure pillars designed to boost network reliability, expand nationwide coverage, and enhance digital service capability. These targeted investments reflect management’s deliberate strategy to strengthen service quality amid escalating data demand and network congestion concerns.

1. Capacity Expansion Across Key Urban Centres

MTN intensified capacity upgrades within high-density urban hubs—Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Ibadan, and emerging secondary cities—to handle surging traffic volumes.

• The upgrades focused on expanding radio access network (RAN) capacity, boosting spectral efficiency, and enhancing backhaul transmission.
• This is expected to significantly reduce congestion during peak hours, improve data throughput, and elevate voice quality metrics.
• Given that over 70% of MTN’s data traffic originates from major cities, capacity expansion remains a critical lever for sustaining QoS and customer experience.

2. Deployment of New Sites to Deepen Coverage

Beyond capacity upgrades, MTN accelerated the rollout of new network sites to bridge coverage gaps across underserved communities.

• These greenfield sites extend MTN’s 4G footprint and support early-stage 5G densification.
• Site deployment enhances rural penetration, supporting the government’s digital inclusion objectives.
• The additional sites also expand MTN’s commercial reach, laying the foundation for future data revenue growth in low-ARPU regions.

3. Rollout of Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) for High-Speed Broadband

MTN scaled its FTTH expansion as part of its broadband strategy to serve households, SMEs, and corporate clients with reliable high-speed internet.

• FTTH deployment addresses the rising demand for streaming, remote work, cloud services, and home-based digital consumption.
• It also diversifies MTN’s revenue mix by strengthening its fixed broadband segment, where penetration remains materially below potential in Nigeria.
• The expansion underpins MTN’s ambition to dominate the fixed-wireless and fibre broadband markets over the next decade.

4. Development of a New Data Centre to Support Digital and Cloud Services

MTN invested in a new state-of-the-art data centre aimed at supporting Nigeria’s fast-growing digital ecosystem.

• The facility enhances MTN’s ability to deliver cloud, enterprise connectivity, fintech hosting, IoT solutions, and edge computing services.
• It strengthens network resilience, reduces latency for mission-critical applications, and expands MTN’s service capacity for enterprise clients.
• The data centre supports national digital transformation goals and positions MTN as a key player in West Africa’s cloud and hyperscale infrastructure landscape.