Congo: MTN's Revenues Decline in Favor of Airtel
The quarterly report made public by the Postal and Electronic Communications Regulatory Authority indicates that for April 2026, MTN Congo had revenues of 6.46 billion FCFA, marking an 11.6% decline compared to the 7.31 billion FCFA recorded during the same period a year earlier. The South African subsidiary's user base also shrank by 3%, totaling 3.68 million active SIM cards.
Listen to the article
Click to generate the audio version
In contrast, Airtel Congo is experiencing an upward trend. The competing operator is showing a 2.5% increase in monthly revenue to 2.75 billion FCFA, supported by a 21.3% expansion of its customer base to reach 2.48 million subscribers. This evolution confirms the contraction observed over time. Indeed, the overall telecommunications activity decreased to 124.8 billion FCFA at the end of 2025, compared to 130.9 billion FCFA recorded in 2021, a decline attributable to an average annual contraction of 6.7% of the leading operator's revenue between 2020 and 2025.
To counter the erosion of its commercial positions, MTN's management implemented a direct tariff adjustment in April 2026. The average tariff for voice communication minutes decreased by 37.6% across the market, resulting from targeted discounts on intra-network (-45%), inter-network (-43%), and international (-9.1%) communications. Despite the contraction of unit margins, investments in access infrastructure have enabled the national mobile penetration rate to increase from 90.8% to 93.1% in March 2026, covering a global base of 6.15 million users. MTN preserves 70.2% of sector revenues and 59.7% of subscriptions but concedes nearly 3 percentage points of market share in value and 5 percentage points in volume to Airtel over the course of a year, with Airtel now claiming 29.8% of revenues and 40.3% of the subscriber base.
Asaba
Comments