The story
The company was founded in 1994 as M-Cell with assistance from the South African government. In 1995, it replaced its then CEO, John Beck, with Robert (Bob) Chaphe and founder Leena Jaitley. In 2001, the company reported that its controlling shareholder was Johnnic Holdings, and the chairperson was Irene Charnley. In 2002, Phuthuma Nhleko became the CEO, replacing then-CEO Paul Edwards, who had invested in expansion to Nigeria. MTN's competitors in South Africa include Vodacom, Cell C and Telkom Mobile.
In May 2008, Bharti Airtel, an India-based telecommunications company, explored the possibility of buying MTN Group. Reliance Communications was also in talks with MTN for a "potential combination of their businesses". In July, the two companies ended discussions regarding the merger. In June 2008, MTN Group agreed to purchase Verizon Business South Africa, which was a provider of data services to customers in South Africa and four other African countries. The acquisition was completed on 28 February 2009. On 26 June 2009, MTN Group's subsidiary merged with Belgacom International Carrier Services (BICS), a subsidiary of Belgacom. The combined subsidiary functioned as the international gateway for carrier services of MTN.
In October 2012, MTN announced a partnership with Afrihost to provide DSL Broadband services in Africa. In November 2012, South African holding company Shanduka Group acquired a minority stake in MTN Group's Nigeria business for $335 million.
In 2014, the company sold its tower portfolios in Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Zambia and Rwanda to IHS Towers. That year, MTN was named to the 2014 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand rankings and named the Most Admired and Most Valuable Brand in Africa, retaining the latter ranking in 2015. IHS Towers later acquired MTN South Africa's towers, in 2022. In March 2016, the company appointed Rob Shuter as CEO, who was succeeded on 1 September 2020 by Ralph Mupita.
In May 2023, in support of the company's "Ambition 2025" plan to structurally separate its fibre business; MTN rebranded subsidiary MTN GlobalConnect as Bayobab, operating as Bayobab Fibre and Bayobab Communication. On March 14, 2024, several undersea cables were cut, disrupting service for the Africa Coast to Europe. Bayobab repaired the disabled ACE and WASC lines during the following week.
On January 21, 2026, Ireland's AC Shining Stars (ACS) announced a CFA 2600 billion (€4 billion) lawsuit against MTN Group for its unauthorized use of the "Mobile Money" registered trademark in 14 African countries: Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast, France, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Namibia, Rwanda, and Zambia. On February 17, 2026, MTN Group announces proposed acquisition of the remaining 75% stake in IHS Towers, valuing the company at around $6.2 billion. On March 4, 2026, following the deaths of Supreme Leader Khamenei and Defense Minister Nasirzadeh in a missile strike, MTN stated it had 'no authorized counterparty with whom to negotiate a legal exit' from Irancell.
On March 16, 2026, MTN Group posted operational and financial results for 2025, delivering significantly on its Ambition 2025 strategy and transitioning to Ambition 2030 priorities to capture value from the attractive structural growth opportunities brought about by accelerated data adoption and financial inclusion across Africa. The same day, a €4 billion ($4.3 billion) whistleblower complaint against MTN Group is reported to be making its way through the US Securities Exchange Commission in the United States of America; a contingent liability of up about 70% of the value of MTN's recently announced $6.2-billion (R103-billion) merger with IHS Towers. AC Shining Stars (ACS), the claimant, claims that this contingent liability has not been disclosed in MTN's official 2025 financial statements or in the IHS merger proxy filings despite the fact that the MTN Group's CEO Ralph MUPITA publicly acknowledged being aware of this claim during the March 16th 2026 investor call as reported by Daily Maverick the same day.
MTN Ghana IPO
On 31 May 2018, MTN Ghana launched its initial public offering (IPO). The IPO closed on 31 July 2019. A total of up to 4,637,394,533 ordinary shares of MTN Ghana, representing 35% of its equity was offered to qualifying applicants. This was part of the agreement between MTN Ghana and Ghana's National Communications Authority (NCA) in November, 2015 for MTN Ghana to deploy 4G LTE mobile services to its customers in Ghana. Among other methods of payments, MTN mobile money was included as a payment option for the MTN share offer subscription. This was the first time mobile money had been used as a payment method in an IPO. In December 2024, MTN appointed Stephen Blewett as CEO of MTN Ghana, succeeding Selorm Adadevoh, who moved to the position of Group Chief Commercial Officer. Blewett assumed the role on 1 April 2025.
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MTN Shuts Down Stores
On 23 February 2017, Nigerian protestors attacked a MTN office in Abuja, Nigeria as a counterattack due to violence targeted against Nigerians in South Africa.
In September 2019 MTN began closing stores in Nigeria and some of their stores in Johannesburg, South Africa due to rioting, looting, and attacks on some of their facilities.
Geoffrey Onyeama the Nigerian Foreign Minister stated at a press briefing on 4 September 2019, that MTN group along with Shoprite, stated that the targeted South African stores in Nigeria are "subsidiaries that are owned by Nigerians." And that "the property owned by Nigerians within Nigeria and the people working there are Nigerians."
Lai Mohammed, Nigeria's Minister of Information and Culture, reported that some of the South African companies that were attacked in Nigeria have Nigerian investors owning significant amounts of stakes, and Nigerian employees.
MTN has stated that they will continue to do business in Nigeria.
Services
In March 2019 MTN launched a WhatsApp channel to let its customers buy airtime and data bundles through the messaging app. Customers can also check their balances and store their credit or debit cards in the app for future purchases. The service is provided by another South African company, Clickatell.
In the same year, MTN launched a communication platform ayoba.
Cyprus branch re-branding
MTN sold its Cyprus branch to Monaco Telecom for €260 million in July 2018. It was later re-branded as Epic in June 2019. In December 2019, former Deputy Finance Minister of the Government of South Africa, Mcebisi Jonas, was appointed as the board chairperson of the company.
Middle East exodus
In August 2020, MTN decided to sell its shares in Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen, and to divest its 49% minority holding in Irancell over time. The company's decision was based on the fact that their assets in the Middle East contributed less than 4% to group earnings in the first half of the year. MTN Group has transferred its majority 82.8% shareholding in MTN Yemen to Emerald International Investment, thereby exiting the market.
Sale of stake in Jumia
On 30 October 2020, MTN made public the sale of their shares in the e-commerce brand Jumia. The sale was worth US$142.31 million dollars.
MTN Mastercard Collaboration
In February 2021, the MTN Group partnered with Mastercard to ensure safe and secure global e-commerce payments of their customer base in 16 African countries. A Mastercard virtual payment platform, that is linked to MTN MoMo (Mobile Money) wallets makes this possible.
Mobile Money spin-off
In March 2021, MTN CEO Ralph Mupita announced during the company's annual results call that the group was now considering spinning off its mobile money activities. "We see a separation and carve out of our fintech business as something that we have to do". In April 2021, he estimated the value of the group's mobile money arm to at least US$5 to 6 billion.
From Wikipedia’s article on MTN Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7