ABUJA, Aug 20 – MTN Nigeria dividend payments are set to generate about $41 million in withholding tax for the Nigerian government when the company pays shareholders ₦545.89 billion ($406.37 million) on September 7.
The company announced on July 30 that its board had approved an interim dividend of ₦26 ($0.019) per 2-kobo ordinary share, subject to withholding tax. The payment will be made to shareholders whose names appeared on the company’s register as of August 20, 2026.
MTN had 20.99 billion shares outstanding at the end of the first half of 2026, putting the total dividend at about ₦545.9 billion before tax. However, shareholders will receive less because dividends in Nigeria are subject to a 10% withholding tax.
The tax will generate about ₦54.59 billion ($40.64 million) for the government, making the dividend payment an important source of tax revenue as governments increasingly rely on profitable listed companies to broaden their tax base.
MTN International (Mauritius) Limited, which owns 73.39% of MTN Nigeria, remains the largest beneficiary. Its 15.41 billion shares give it a gross dividend entitlement of ₦400.65 billion ($298.25 million), of which about ₦360.58 billion ($268.43 million) will remain after tax.
The next-largest shareholder group, comprising two shareholders with 1.11 billion shares, is entitled to about ₦28.92 billion ($21.53 million) before tax. Another group of 336,608 shareholders collectively owns about 137.77 million shares and is entitled to ₦3.58 billion ($2.67 million).
MTN Nigeria, which has a market capitalisation of more than ₦16.90 trillion ($12.58 billion), returned to dividend payments in 2025 after restoring positive retained earnings and shareholders’ equity. It declared an interim dividend of ₦5 per share in October 2025, its first since August 2023, followed by a proposed final dividend of ₦15 per share, bringing the total for 2025 to ₦20 per share.
The return to dividends followed a strong financial recovery. Revenue rose 54.93% in 2025, while profit after tax reached ₦1.11 trillion ($805.50 million), reversing the previous year’s loss.
The growth continued in the first half of 2026, with revenue rising 25.9% year-on-year to ₦2.99 trillion ($2.23 billion) and profit after tax increasing 70.6% to ₦707.54 billion ($526.71 million).
MTN Nigeria also paid ₦384.05 billion in taxes during the period, showing that the dividend-related withholding tax is only part of its wider tax contribution.
For investors, the net dividend will be ₦23.40 per share after tax, compared with the announced ₦26. For the government, the payment provides ₦54.59 billion ($40.64 million) in revenue without owning shares in the company.
