MTN Nigeria says it has paid more than N7 trillion in taxes to the Federal Government since the beginning of Nigeria’s telecommunications revolution about 25 years ago.
The company said it had also invested more than $3 billion in digital infrastructure across the country.
The Chief Financial Officer of MTN Nigeria, Ms Modupe Kadiri, disclosed this at the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce (NSACC) August 2026 Breakfast Forum in Lagos.
The forum had the theme, “Building Local Content Together: 25 Years of Shared Growth.”
Kadiri said the company’s contribution to Nigeria’s economy extended beyond taxation to infrastructure development, employment, enterprise growth and increased Nigerian participation in wealth creation.
She also highlighted the company’s commitment to local content development, which she said was aimed at empowering Nigerian talents and businesses through greater indigenous participation in its operations.
According to her, MTN Nigeria spent more than N2.7 trillion in 2025, with 62 per cent of its procurement expenditure directed to local suppliers.
She said the figure represented a significant increase from 9.6 per cent recorded in 2024.
Kadiri said the remaining 38 per cent of the company’s procurement spending also presented opportunities for Nigeria to strengthen local capacity, particularly in technology-intensive areas.
“When companies pay taxes, national institutions are supported; when infrastructure is built, economic capacity expands; when Nigerians lead businesses, professional capacity grows and when Nigerians own shares, participation in wealth creation increases,” she said.
The CFO said most of MTN Nigeria’s technology requirements were now being fulfilled by local suppliers, unlike in the early years of the company’s operations when many such services were handled by foreign contractors.
She said the first phase of telecommunications local content development was largely driven by network rollout, site acquisition, distribution, civil works, marketing, support, logistics and other operational services.
Kadiri said the growing reliance on local suppliers had created commercial demand that encouraged indigenous businesses to improve quality, strengthen governance, employ more Nigerians and invest in equipment, technology and specialised skills.
According to her, the impact of local procurement should not be measured solely by the amount of money spent or retained within the country.
“The real measure is not the invoice. The real measure is actually the capability that remains in the economy after the investment is made,” she said.
Kadiri said some categories of products and services remained difficult to source locally at scale because of the highly technology-dependent nature of the telecommunications industry.
She identified telecommunications equipment, devices, software and specialised technologies as areas where Nigeria needed to develop greater domestic manufacturing and technical capacity.
She said continued investment in local capacity would enable Nigerian businesses to play a bigger role in the telecommunications value chain and support the country’s broader economic development.
