There’s an old Kampala saying that when you kill a chicken for lunch, you don’t complain about the feathers – they come with the territory.
MTN Uganda’s H1 2025 results carry that same flavour. On the plate, the company served up solid revenue growth, fatter margins, and stronger cash flows. But on the side was an unavoidable helping of feathers – a Ush 110.9 billion tax settlement with the Uganda Revenue Authority that shaved nearly 10 percent off the bottom line.
Strip out that once-off tax bite, and the picture changes entirely. Adjusted profit after tax jumped 27.8 percent to Ush 377.9 billion, showing that the core engine is humming smoothly. Service revenue grew 13.3 percent to Ush 1.71 trillion, and the mix keeps shifting away from old-school voice towards the higher-growth data and fintech segments. Data revenue surged 31.3 percent on the back of affordable bundles, device financing schemes, and aggressive 4G/5G rollout. Fintech – mostly MoMo – grew 18.6 percent, as transaction values hit Ush 89.3 trillion, pushing its share of service revenue to just over 30 percent.
"Voice, once the bread and butter, is now the side dish – still the single biggest contributor at 36.9 percent of service revenue, but with growth stuck at 0.4 percent thanks to lower mobile termination rates. The real story is in data traffic, up 42.6 percent, and in fintech’s growing menu of advanced services like MoMo Advance and the Virtual Card partnership with Mastercard.
Costs? Contained. EBITDA rose 17.8 percent to Ush 924.2 billion, with the margin swelling to 53.7 percent – helped by an Expense Efficiency Program that saved Ush 39.3 billion and a calm inflation backdrop. Net debt is down 12.7 percent to Ush 1.3 trillion, leverage is a comfortable 0.7x EBITDA, and capex spending held steady, focused on densifying the network, extending fibre, and expanding population coverage to 88.2 percent for 4G and 19 percent for 5G.
"Shareholders are being rewarded with a Ush 10.0 per share interim dividend – Ush 223.9 billion in total – to be paid in September. And there’s a strategic kicker: shareholders have approved the structural separation of the fintech arm, MTN Mobile Money (U) Limited, which could unlock fresh value once regulators sign off.
For the second half, MTN still aims for “upper-teens” service revenue growth, EBITDA margins above 50 percent, and capex intensity in the low teens. Risks remain – the US dollar’s behaviour, geopolitical rumblings – but with diversified revenues, market muscle, and a tight grip on costs, MTN is still cooking with gas.
MTN Uganda H1 2025 Financial Highlights
| Metric | H1 2025 (Ush bn) | H1 2024 (Ush bn) | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Revenue | 1,722.0 | 1,522.7 | +13.1% |
| Service Revenue | 1,705.0 | 1,505.4 | +13.3% |
| - Data Revenue | 490.2 | 373.3 | +31.3% |
| - Voice Revenue | 629.0 | 626.7 | +0.4% |
| - Fintech Revenue | 524.6 | 442.3 | +18.6% |
| EBITDA | 924.2 | 784.7 | +17.8% |
| EBITDA Margin | 53.7% | 51.5% | +2.2 pp |
| EBIT | 664.6 | 545.6 | +21.8% |
| Profit Before Tax | 543.8 | 424.5 | +28.1% |
| Profit After Tax | 267.0 | 295.7 | -9.7% |
| Adjusted PAT* | 377.9 | 295.7 | +27.8% |
| Capex (ex-leases) | 219.7 | 219.0 | +0.3% |
| Net Debt | 1,300.0 | 1,490.0 | -12.7% |
| Leverage (Net Debt/EBITDA) | 0.7x | 0.9x | — |
*Excludes Ush 110.9 bn once-off tax settlement.
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