MTN shares have fallen by more than 40% over the past year, while its competitor Vodacom has seen only a modest decline on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

On 6 August, MTN’s share price fell to R72.70, sharply down from R140 on 1 August last year.

The decline in the share price can largely be attributed to the poor performance of its Nigerian subsidiary. The devaluation of the naira against the US dollar has severely affected its financial performance, the group said in its interim financials for 30 June 2024.

Despite improving its active data users and total subscriber numbers, MTN Nigeria reported a loss after tax of 519-billion naira for the six months to end June.

The naira has struggled to stabilise against the dollar since Nigeria ended its regime of regulated exchange rates in June 2023. This has led to its more than doubling against the dollar to around 1,590 naira.