MTN Group top executive walked away with significant pay increases of between 38% and 61% in the year 2025.
Group President and CEO, Ralph Mupita’s got a total remuneration of US$5.94 million for the year 2025 – the highest single-year package he has received since taking the MTN top job in September 2020.
Mupita’s pay for 2025 represents a 53% increase on the US$3.88 million he earned in 2024, and exceeds his previous personal best of just over US$5.5 million for the 2023 financial year.
But Mupita was not the only senior executive to benefit. In fact, MTN Nigeria CEO and Francophone Africa Vice President Karl Toriola got the biggest pay rise of 61%, taking home home US$3.4 million in the year under review.
Group Chief Technology and Information Officer, Charles Molapisi got a 59% pay rise and took home about US$2.5 million.
Group Chief Financial Officer Tsholofelo Molefe also got a bigger rate of increase than the CEO. His pay for the year, US$3.11 million, was 55% higher than that of the year before.
Senior Vice President for Markets Ebenezer Asante received also got a 38% increased, taking his pay to almost US$3.11 million as well.
Meanwhile, the newly appointed MTN South Africa CEO Ferdi Moolman, who held the role for only two months of the financial year, was paid a little over US$1 million.
The pay rise comes nearly a year after MTN’s non-binding remuneration implementation report failed to secure the required 75% shareholder support at the group’s 30th annual general meeting in May 2025, with 40.82% of votes cast against the resolution. The implementation report will return to shareholders at the next AGM, scheduled for 29 May 2026.
“Building on the group’s performance in 2025, our remuneration philosophy continues to play a pivotal role in supporting the achievement of strategic objectives and sustainable growth. We continue to ensure that our remuneration framework attracts, retains and motivates exceptional talent, recognising that our people are central to driving progress, innovation and transformation across our markets,” said Khotso Mokhele, chair of MTN Group’s remuneration committee, in the company’s remuneration report for 2025.
According to MTN, the bulk of the increase in Mupita’s earnings is attributable to the vesting of long-term incentives at a materially higher share price. The MTN share price used to value vested shares rose from US$7.45 in the 2024 vesting cycle to US$12.1 in the 2025 cycle. The group also confirmed that the weighting given to company performance in the calculation of short-term incentives for all executives was lifted to 70% during the year, which – combined with strong operational outcomes – drove larger short-term incentive payouts across the executive committee.
During the 2025 financial year, Charles Molapisi served 10 months as MTN South Africa CEO, with his replacement, Moolman, serving for two. MTN benchmarks its executive pay against JSE market peers including Vodacom, Shoprite, Standard Bank and MultiChoice. According to the remuneration report, mining companies were removed from the comparator group used to benchmark the CEO and CFO in 2025 following concerns raised by shareholders.
The pay increases follow MTN Group’s strongest set of financial results in more than a decade. Service revenue rose 22.7% in constant currency to JUS$13 billion, Ebitda before once-off items grew 36.8% and adjusted headline earnings per share were up 67%. The board declared a dividend of US$0.30/share, up from US$0.21, and announced a US$358.8 million opportunistic share buyback programme to be executed over three years.
Group performance was driven primarily by MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana, which posted constant-currency service revenue growth of 54.9% and 35.9%, respectively. MTN South Africa, by contrast, recorded service revenue growth of just 2%, with Ebitda in the local market down 10.2% and Ebitda margin contracting 2.9 percentage points to 34.5%.
Mupita’s key performance indicators were based on both company and team performance, with the reduction of Nigeria’s negative equity position crucial to his overall performance rating.
“The [remuneration] committee remains satisfied that MTN Group’s remuneration framework is robust, well governed and appropriately aligned to strategy, performance and values. The committee will continue to support sustainable long-term value creation for shareholders and broader stakeholders,” said Mokhele.
