MTN Tariff hike was necessary to avoid insolvency, says CEO Karl Toriola as the company plans over N1tn in network investment

MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer Karl Toriola has defended the recent telecommunications tariff increase, saying the adjustment was necessary to prevent the company and the wider industry from slipping into insolvency, while revealing plans to invest more than N1 trillion in network expansion and maintenance this year.

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Toriola made the disclosure during MTN Nigeria’s stakeholder engagement on internet data spending, themed “Data on Trial”, held in Lagos.

The event featured a courtroom-style debate hosted by Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and attended by regulators, subscribers and content creators.

Explaining the rationale behind the MTN Tariff Hike, Toriola said the company was facing severe financial challenges before the price adjustment was approved.

“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 said.

According to Toriola, revenue at the time was insufficient to cover critical operating costs, including diesel, rent and software licences required to keep the network running.

“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,” he added.

The MTN chief executive further disclosed that the company was technically insolvent and operating with negative equity before the tariff review.

“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,” Toriola stated.

Despite the financial pressure, MTN continued to invest heavily in infrastructure, spending N900 billion on network expansion and maintenance in 2025.

Toriola revealed that investment would rise even further in 2026.

“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,” he said.

The telecom executive also highlighted challenges affecting service delivery, including vandalism, insecurity and disruptions at network facilities across the country.

“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,” Toriola remarked.

Despite these obstacles, he maintained that MTN Nigeria continues to provide services that compare favourably with international standards.

“I still believe that I’m proud that we provide pretty much a global standard of service,” he said.

Addressing concerns about internet costs, Toriola argued that unlimited data packages are not sustainable due to network capacity requirements and infrastructure costs.

“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 said.

He also insisted that data prices in Nigeria remain highly competitive even after the MTN Tariff Hike.

“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,” Toriola added.

The Chief Customer Relations and Experience Officer, Ugonwa Nwonye, said the engagement was organised to improve customer understanding of data consumption patterns and address common concerns about rapid depletion.

Nwonye disclosed that MTN had developed digital tools, including a personalised data dashboard and calculator, to help subscribers monitor usage across applications.

“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 said.

According to Nwonye, video-streaming platforms such as TikTok, device settings and automatic backups are among the major contributors to high data consumption.

She added that MTN plans to take the awareness campaign nationwide over the next six months.

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

“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.

Ikenna-Emeka noted that MTN currently serves more than 87 million subscribers across Nigeria and remains committed to improving transparency around data usage.

One of the event’s notable moments came from content creator Yemisi Odusanya, popularly known as Sisi Yemmie, who admitted arriving at the session frustrated over what she perceived as rapid data depletion.

“I was very angry when I was coming because I’m like, we just subscribed, let’s say two days ago, and now it is expired,” Odusanya said.

However, after listening to the explanations, she said her perspective had changed.

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

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The engagement also featured questions from subscribers and influencers, including Peller, Jarvis, Fisayo Fosudo and Timi Agbaje, as MTN sought to strengthen customer understanding of data usage and network operations.