MTN Nigeria Nearly Doubled the Number of Staff Earning ₦2.4 Million Every Month
While most Nigerians are calculating how to stretch ₦20,000 to the end of the month, nearly 700 MTN employees are collecting ₦2.4 million every single month. Here is the full story.
In a country where the cost of rice, fuel, and rent keeps climbing faster than most people's salaries, MTN Nigeria just quietly revealed something that will make a lot of people stop scrolling.
According to its 2025 full-year results, the number of MTN Nigeria employees earning at least ₦2.4 million every month, that is roughly $1,800, nearly doubled in just one year. It went from 334 people to 659. To put that in context, those 659 people make up about one in three of MTN's entire Nigerian workforce of 2,001 staff.
Sounds crazy, right?
Well, the pay picture gets even more interesting when you zoom out. More than 84 out of every 100 MTN Nigeria employees already earned at least ₦1 million monthly before these new figures.
In 2025, the top earners grew by 97 percent almost doubling, while the middle pay bands shrank. Not because people were pushed out, but because many of them were promoted straight into higher brackets. The company spent ₦88.8 billion on staff salaries for the year in total.
So why is MTN paying like this?
Three reasons. First, inflation. Prices in Nigeria have been brutal at one point, rising above 30 per cent, meaning a salary that felt decent in 2023 barely covers the same lifestyle today. Companies that want to keep good people have had to act fast.
Second, the Japa wave. Skilled Nigerian engineers, tech specialists, and data experts have been leaving the country in large numbers, chasing better pay abroad. Replacing them or convincing them to stay is not cheap.
Third, MTN could actually afford it. The company recorded a revenue of ₦5.2 trillion in 2025, up nearly 55 per cent from the year before, and posted a profit of ₦1.1 trillion after a very difficult 2024.
Under CEO Karl Toriola, MTN Nigeria is not just chasing numbers; it is investing in the people who produce them. For those 659 workers, that investment is very, very real.
MTN Nigeria Nearly Doubled the Number of Staff Earning ₦2.4 Million Every Month
