MTN and Airtel Nigeria entered 2025 as customer spending rose sharply across their networks nationwide.
MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria both recorded higher Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) during the year, while demand strengthened across services.
ARPU measures how much each subscriber spends monthly on calls, data, and digital services.
MTN Revenue And ARPU growth
For MTN Nigeria, ARPU rose to $3.60 in 2025 from $2.17 in 2024.
In naira terms, this equals about ₦5,184.01 per customer monthly, up from ₦3,542.
As a result, MTN grew revenue to ₦5.2 trillion, which marked a 55.1% increase year on year.
Meanwhile, customers drove higher data usage through smartphones, streaming, and social media activity.
MTN added 11.6% more data subscribers, while smartphone penetration climbed to 66.1%.
In addition, data traffic jumped by 34%, and average usage reached 13.1GB per user each month.
The company also expanded 4G coverage to 84.6% as it invested in network upgrades.
Airtel Earnings And Data Expansion
Similarly, Airtel Nigeria delivered strong growth in customer spending over the same period.
Its ARPU rose to $2.4 from $1.7, which equals about ₦3,326.4 per customer monthly.
Although Airtel still trails MTN, its customers steadily increased their spending.
Read Also: Ghana Boosts Reserves With 30% Gold Purchase Rule
Consequently, revenue rose by 47.4% in constant currency, driven mainly by strong data demand.
Data revenue surged by 63.6% as more users increased consumption.
Furthermore, data customers grew by 8.1%, while data ARPU increased by 49.2%.
Average data usage also climbed by 30.8%, reaching 11GB per user monthly in 2025.
Tariff Hike And Rising Data Demand
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approved a 50% tariff increase, which reshaped pricing.
As a result, operators raised prices for calls, SMS, and data bundles across the market.
However, rising internet usage also accelerated revenue growth across both networks.
Nigerians now consume about 45,800 terabytes of data daily across telecom networks.
Finally, operators continue upgrading infrastructure as demand puts pressure on network capacity.
