MTN Ghana says it is implementing a significant system upgrade during the initial week of 2026 to ensure that its systems are compliant with the government’s recently enacted National Value Added Tax (VAT) reforms.
In a circular to subscribers, the company announced a temporary service disruption scheduled for the early hours of Friday, January 2, 2026 to allow for the implementation of the new VAT rate that will impact prices of all telecommunications services in the country.
MTN said the upgrade process is scheduled for midnight to 4am on January 2, a timeframe intentionally selected to minimise disruption to daytime activities.
”There is scheduled maintenance on January 2, 2026, from 12am to 4am in preparation for the new VAT reform tariffs,” it said.
According to MTN, platforms utilised for retail transactions will not be accessible for four hours, adding that all recharge channels, including Mobile Money top-ups via *170#, the MyMTN App, Electronic Voucher Distributors, and third-party banking apps, will not allow subscribers to buy airtime or data bundles during the period.
The company also notified customers that real-time balance updates and automated bundle renewals, including Mashup services, may be temporarily paused until the system upgrade is finished.
MTN also appealed to customers for cooperation and understanding throughout the maintenance window, acknowledging the inconvenience to travellers, early-morning commuters, and night shift workers.
The company recommended that subscribers buy airtime and data bundles before the midnight cut-off, make sure they have enough active balances to last through the early morning hours, and plan ahead for any dependents who might need emergency top-ups during the outage in order to minimise disruption.
According to MTN, users will be able to conduct business as usual under the new VAT regime once services are fully restored by 4am on January 2, 2026.
