The head of MTN’s business in Uganda is confident the unit will continue to grow in the second half of 2025, enough to mitigate the effects of regulatory and tax obligations.
CEO Sylvia Mulinge noted that the East African economy grew by 6.3% in fiscal year 2024/25 “with macroeconomic indicators trending favourably in the period.”
The central bank projects core inflation levels of 4.5%-5% in the medium term.
“Risks to the outlook are pegged on escalation of geopolitical tensions and the performance of the US dollar in the global markets, which may impact currency and inflation stability. As we progress into the second half, we are confident that our business is well-positioned to deliver on our growth ambitions in both the connectivity and fintech businesses,” she said.
This comes as MTN Uganda has reported higher earnings at the halfway stage of the financial year despite a challenging operating context characterised by changes in mobile termination rate (MTR) regulations, which affected voice revenue.
However, it also settled a tax liability, which had an adverse effect on its bottom line.
Uganda is the third of MTN Group’s companies to report after Nigeria and Ghana released strong earnings last week.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) increased by 17.8% to 924.2-billion Uganda shilling reflecting progress in the implementation of company’s operational efficiency initiatives. This was helped by currency and inflation stability, which enabled it to better contain operating cost growth.
Profit before tax increased 28.1% on account of contained cost growth and improved operating profit. However, taxes paid were 115% higher due to a one-off settlement after an assessment by the Uganda Revenue Authority. This resulted in a 9.7% reduction in profit after tax to 267-billion shilling.
Total subscribers grew 10.2% to 22.8-million, while active data subscribers increased 23.4% to 10.8-million and fintech subscribers by 6% to 13.3-million.
Service revenue increased 13.3% to 1.7-trillion Uganda shilling and data revenue grew 31.3% to 490.2-billion shilling. Voice revenue increased 0.4% and fintech revenue increased 18.6%.
The volume of MoMo transactions rose 20.3% to 2.4-billion, while the value of MoMo transactions increased 28.7% to 89.3-trillion Uganda shilling.
Mulinge said the group was confident that it was well positioned to deliver on its growth ambitions in both the connectivity and fintech businesses.
“In our connectivity business, we anticipate positive momentum in service revenue anchored by the growing demand for our data services. As we focus on the recovery of top-line growth in our voice business, following the MTR changes last year, we will continue to implement our rigorous expense efficiencies to ensure operational resilience to support margin and free cash flow generation,” she said.
The company would prioritise investment in the core network focusing on quality and stability to drive both voice and data traffic.
“For the fintech business, we will continue to leverage partnerships to support advanced revenue growth. We have launched two products in partnership with Sanlam; Yinvesta, a micro investment vehicle allowing our customers to invest and earn competitive daily interest and Cover by MoMo for insurance,” Mulinge said.
In terms of the medium-term guidance framework, the group continues to target “upper-teens” service revenue growth with stable ebitda margins above 50% as well as “low-teens” capex (excluding leases) intensity.
Update: August 11 2025
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