Elegbede Abiodun
“… The financial flexibility allowed the telco to double its capital expenditure from N443.5 billion in 2024 to a staggering N1 trillion over the last twelve months.”
Following a year of financial recovery and massive infrastructure spending, Chief Financial Officer, MTN Nigeria, Modupe Kadri, has addressed the growing disconnect between the company’s record N1 trillion investment and the persistent ‘no coverage’ zones across the country.
Speaking recently in an interview, Kadri provided a candid assessment of the telecommunications landscape, explaining that while the capital injection is unprecedented, the physical reality of network deployment requires a ‘gestation period’ that cannot be bypassed by capital alone.
According to him, the surge in investment follows a pivotal 2025 when MTN saw its total revenue climb to N5.20 trillion, a 54.9 per cent increase from the previous year.
This growth, he said, was largely driven by a 74.5 per cent explosion in data revenue, which reached N2.78 trillion, “officially overtaking voice as the company’s primary income stream. The financial flexibility allowed the telco to double its capital expenditure from N443.5 billion in 2024 to a staggering N1 trillion over the last twelve months.”
Kadri further said that this was essential to sustain the business, noting, “What we’ve done, as you can see from our numbers, is that right throughout the year, we spent over N1 trillion (on infrastructure), up by almost 100% or twice, from N440 million in 2024.”
He emphasised that the size of the ‘no coverage’ pockets is a direct indicator of the massive scale of investment still required.
Addressing the current state of service quality directly, Kadri stated: “I’ll say up front that we’re not out of the woods, but we would continue now that we’ve got a business case to make those investments, we will continue to make those investments.”
One of the primary challenges cited by the CFO involves the “huge bottlenecks” created by state and local governments, particularly regarding Right of Way (RoW) permits. These regulatory hurdles often delay the rollout of fibre-optic cables, which are the backbone of high-quality data services. Kadri stressed that for the N1 trillion investment to translate into seamless connectivity, there must be a synergy between private investment and public policy.
He noted that the company is not shy about tracing these challenges, as the industry continues to grapple with the high costs of maintaining fibre kilometres in a volatile environment where infrastructure is often at risk.
