MTN Nigeria Communications has paid a record interim dividend of ₦545.89 billion to shareholders, the largest half-year payout in the telecom giant’s history, following a sharp rebound in profitability.
The Payout Breakdown
The company disbursed ₦26 per share to shareholders whose names appeared on its register as of August 20, 2026. Payment was made on September 7, 2026, to more than 203,000 shareholders. With 20.99 billion shares outstanding at the end of H1 2026, the gross payout totalled approximately ₦545.9 billion.
Nigeria’s 10% withholding tax on dividends applied, meaning about ₦54.59 billion went to the federal government, leaving shareholders with a net payout of roughly ₦491.3 billion collectively. On a per-share basis, that works out to ₦23.40 net after tax.
MTN Group Limited, the South African parent company, holds between 73% and 75% of MTN Nigeria, meaning the bulk of the dividend flows back to the parent, while the remaining shares are held by over 203,000 mostly Nigerian shareholders.
What’s Driving The Payout
The dividend follows a strong first-half performance. MTN Nigeria reported revenue of ₦2.99 trillion for H1 2026, up 25.9% year-on-year, while profit after tax rose 70.6% to ₦707.54 billion. Total assets reached ₦5.97 trillion as of June 2026 (representing a 10.5% increase from the end of 2025) driven partly by continued capital spending on network infrastructure. The company’s balance sheet also showed a major turnaround on equity, which surged to a positive ₦930.6 billion from a deficit of ₦42.5 billion in the same period last year, as MTN Nigeria successfully moved from accumulated losses to a retained profit of ₦793.1 billion.
Tax Contribution
Beyond the withholding tax on this dividend, MTN Nigeria had already paid approximately ₦384.05 billion in taxes during the H1 2026 period, according to company disclosures. The ₦54.59 billion withholding tax from the dividend adds to that figure, though it represents only a fraction of the company’s broader annual tax contribution to government revenue.
Market Context
MTN Nigeria’s market capitalisation stood at more than ₦16.90 trillion as of the disclosure in August 2026. According to dividend tracking data, the company’s five-year dividend growth rate stands at roughly 34%, reflecting the scale of its post-2023 recovery.
Among individual shareholders, Chief Victor Odili, reportedly the largest Nigerian shareholder in MTN Nigeria, was credited with a dividend of ₦22 billion for the H1 2026 period.
