MTN Nigeria said it invested N900bn in network expansion and maintenance in 2025 and plans to spend more than N1tn in 2026.

The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, argued that the recent tariff increase was necessary to prevent the telecommunications company and the wider industry from slipping into insolvency.

Toriola disclosed this during the company’s recent stakeholder engagement on internet data spending, themed ‘Data on Trial’, held in Lagos. The event featured a law court-style debate session hosted by Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and attended by content creators, MTN subscribers and regulators.

Speaking on the rationale for the tariff adjustment, Toriola said the company faced severe financial pressure before the increase was approved. He explained, “The tariff increase was implemented for one primary reason: to allow the industry to survive. At the point in time when the tariff increase was implemented, we practically could not pay our bills.”

He added, “There was not enough money coming into MTN’s accounts to pay our bills for diesel, rent and software licences. We were effectively bankrupt. Without that tariff increase, we would have had to shut down the network.”

Toriola said the company was technically insolvent at the time, with negative equity, and warned that network operations were at risk.

According to him, “In the period when the tariff increase was implemented, technically speaking, we were insolvent. We were in negative equity, for those who are financial people. So it was necessary for the industry first just to survive. It was really on the verge of breaking down. And then to allow us to continue to invest.”

The MTN boss said the company invested N900bn in 2025 and would exceed that figure this year as it continues to expand and maintain its infrastructure.

According to him, “Last year, we invested N900bn. This year, we’re going to invest in excess of a trillion. We invest more in the expansion and maintenance of this company than we make in profits.”

Toriola also linked network quality challenges to the country’s operating environment, citing vandalism, insecurity and disruptions at telecom sites.

The MTN boss remarked, “We’re in a country where area boys will block us from network sites. We’re in a country where someone, for the heck of it, will light up a telecom manhole that will affect 30,000 subscribers, or base stations serving up to two million people.”

Despite the challenges, he maintained that MTN delivers services comparable to international standards. According to him, “I still believe that I’m proud that we provide pretty much a global standard of service.”

On complaints about data costs, Toriola argued that mobile operators cannot sustainably offer unlimited data packages because of capacity constraints.

The MTN Nigeria chief said, “We cannot give unlimited internet data to everyone, as much as we would desire it. We will not be able to build the networks that we will use in any way whatsoever.”

He further claimed that data prices in Nigeria remain among the lowest globally despite the tariff review. According to him, “Go and check in Kenya, go and check in Congo, go and check across the world, and tell me if you are not going to tell me that data in Nigeria is one of the cheapest in the world, even after the tariff increase.”

The Chief Customer Relations and Experience Officer, Ugonwa Nwonye, said the engagement aimed to educate subscribers on how data is consumed and provide tools to help them track usage.

She said video-streaming applications such as TikTok remain among the biggest drivers of data consumption and noted that device settings, video quality and automatic backups often contribute to faster depletion.

According to Nwonye, “We have built a data calculator. We have built a data dashboard personalised to our customers. And we’re going to make this available by the end of this month so that customers can also go to such places and look at how much data they’ve spent on different applications.”

She added that MTN would take the campaign nationwide over the next six months to improve consumer understanding of data usage.

On her part, the Chief Marketing Officer, Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka, said the programme was designed to address long-standing concerns about data depletion, expiry and transparency.

According to her, “The whole idea is to provide that clarity, the understanding, the transparency, and the behind-the-scenes of exactly what happens when we are in the process of using data.”

She said MTN would continue engaging customers and improving transparency around data usage patterns. According to Ikenna-Emeka, the company currently serves more than 87 million subscribers across Nigeria.

One of the participants at the event, Yemisi Odusanya, popularly known as Sisi Yemmie, said she arrived at the engagement frustrated by what she perceived as rapid data depletion. “I was very angry when I was coming,” Odusanya said. “Because I’m like, we just subscribed, let’s say two days ago, and now it is expired.”

However, the content creator said the explanations provided during the session helped her better understand how data is consumed across multiple devices and applications.

According to Odusanya, “After the explanations, I was like, you know what, this actually makes sense. I’m going home to go and reconfigure everything.”

The MTN team fielded questions from more users on internet costs and usage. Some users in attendance included entertainment content creators Peller and Jarvis, tech influencer Fisayo Fosudo, and legal influencer/content creator Timi Agbaje.

Nigeria recorded a sharp improvement in its merchandise trade balance in the first quarter of 2026 as exports rose and imports declined significantly, pushing the country’s trade surplus to N7.55tn.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics’ Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics report released on Monday, total trade stood at N34.79tn in the review period, with exports accounting for N21.17tn and imports amounting to N13.62tn.

The report showed that the trade balance remained positive at N7.55tn, representing a 340.88 per cent increase compared to the preceding quarter.

“The merchandise trade balance for Q1 2026 remained positive at N7.55tn, indicating an increase of 340.88 per cent compared to the value recorded in the preceding quarter,” the NBS stated, attributing the development largely to lower petroleum product imports and higher crude oil exports.

The statistics office disclosed that total exports rose by 2.77 per cent year-on-year from N20.60tn recorded in the corresponding period of 2025 and increased by 11.63 per cent from N18.96tn in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Exports accounted for 60.85 per cent of total trade during the quarter. Crude oil remained Nigeria’s dominant export commodity, generating N11.20tn and accounting for 52.92 per cent of total exports.

Non-crude oil exports stood at N9.97tn, while non-oil exports contributed N3.19tn, representing 15.05 per cent of total exports. The report noted that crude oil exports, despite declining by 13.53 per cent from N12.96tn recorded a year earlier, increased by 15.45 per cent compared to the previous quarter.

Other petroleum product exports surged by 51.49 per cent year-on-year to N6.78tn. India emerged as Nigeria’s largest export destination during the quarter with goods valued at N2.77tn, representing 13.09 per cent of total exports.

It was followed by France with N1.97tn, the Netherlands with N1.95tn, Spain with N1.63tn and the United States with N1.18tn. Together, the five countries accounted for 44.84 per cent of Nigeria’s total exports.

The NBS further revealed that exports were concentrated in mineral products valued at N18.16tn, representing 85.77 per cent of total exports. Europe remained the leading destination for Nigerian exports, accounting for N7.93tn or 37.44 per cent of total exports, followed by Asia with N6.42tn.

On the import side, Nigeria’s import bill fell sharply to N13.62tn, representing an 18.17 per cent decline from N16.64tn recorded in the first quarter of 2025 and a 21.05 per cent decrease from N17.25tn in the preceding quarter. Imports accounted for 39.15 per cent of total trade.

According to the report, machinery and transport equipment remained the largest import category, valued at N5.01tn and accounting for 36.79 per cent of total imports.

Mineral fuels followed with N2.65tn, while chemicals and related products accounted for N2.02tn. China retained its position as Nigeria’s largest source of imports, supplying goods worth N5.10tn or 37.42 per cent of total imports.

The United States followed with imports valued at N2.81tn, while India, Germany and the United Arab Emirates completed the top five import sources.

The NBS stated that imports were driven largely by crude petroleum oils valued at N1.91tn, gas oil worth N364.42bn, durum wheat valued at N340.07bn, telecommunications equipment worth N299.56bn and used diesel vehicles valued at N284.07bn.

A breakdown by sector showed mixed performance. Agricultural exports declined by 31.2 per cent to N1.17tn from N1.70tn recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2025, while agricultural imports also dropped by 20.09 per cent to N827.72bn.

Superior quality cocoa beans remained the country’s leading agricultural export, generating N596.90bn during the period. Raw material exports rose strongly by 46.83 per cent to N1.53tn, while solid mineral exports increased by 74.63 per cent to N102.80bn. Manufactured goods exports edged up by 2.79 per cent to N302.64bn.

The report also showed that Nigeria maintained a substantial trade surplus with Africa. Exports to African countries stood at N4.06tn, compared to imports of N654.94bn. Togo remained Nigeria’s biggest export destination in Africa with goods valued at N1.08tn, followed by South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt and Senegal.

Within West Africa, exports totalled N2.27tn against imports of N76.54bn, while trade with ECOWAS member states produced exports worth N2.20tn compared with imports of N65.91bn.

Petroleum products dominated Nigeria’s exports to both West Africa and ECOWAS countries. The report further showed that maritime transport remained the dominant channel for trade, accounting for 99.07 per cent of exports and 92.93 per cent of imports. Apapa Port handled the largest share of both exports and imports, recording N15.48tn in exports and N4.92tn in imports during the quarter.