MTN Makes N366 Billion from Data Sales as Revenue Rises by 51.5%

…Active Data Subscribers Increases by 2.5 Million to 33.2 Million

Telecommunications giant, MTN Nigeria has announced a 51.5% increase in its data revenue to the tune of ₦366 billion in the first nine months of 2021.

This was disclosed in the company’s unaudited financial statement for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 filed with Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).

According to the telecom company, voice and data revenues grew by N192.01 billion in the first nine months of 2021 to N1.09 trillion, compared to the corresponding period in 2020.

The telecommunications company said its total revenue rose to N1.21tn in the period under review from N975.76bn in the same period a year earlier.

MTN Nigeria stated that in the nine months to Sept. 30 the number of mobile subscribers fell by 7.5 million to 67.5 million, and that this was due to the effect of regulatory restrictions on new SIM sales and activations.

Also MTN revenue revealed that fintech witnessed a continued rise, as it grew by 55.2% from N32.37bn in the first nine months of 2020 to N50.24bn this year.

Consequently, as customers continued to increase their use of MTN’s Xtratime product and broader fintech services, there was expanded mobile money (MoMo) agent network for the Johannesburg controlled Nigerian arm with the addition of over 234, 000 registered agents in the reported nine months, bringing the total number to approximately 630,000.

The company saw transaction volume in the nine months rise by more than three times to 93.3 million, led by an active subscriber base of 6.6 million, up 97.2 percent year on year.

The wireless carrier reported a decline in its
mobile subscribers by 7.5 million to 67.5 million, but that this was impacted by restrictions imposed by industry regulator on new SIM sales and activations.

Overall, service revenue continues to grow, increasing by 23.7 per cent, ahead of the rate of inflation and supported by voice revenue growth of 10.6per cent and accelerated data revenue growth of 51.5 per cent. A pretax profit after for the quarter of 109.13 billion Nigerian naira ($265.2 million), compared with NGN74.86 billion for the third quarter of 2020.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 27% to NGN170.80 billion. Revenue for the quarter was up NGN414.6 billion compared with NGN337.69 billion the year before.

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The company said that service revenue grew 24% year-on-year and exceeded its medium-term guidance of mid-teens growth.

Commenting on the company’s growth in the third quarter of 2021, the Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, said, “In the first nine months of 2021, we continued to enhance the resilience of the business, improve our performance and make good progress towards our Ambition 2025 strategy.

“Creating shared value has become a strategic priority within the Ambition 2025 framework. As a result, we continue to deepen our support for and partnerships in Nigeria.”

He said the telecom ban in some locations in the nation had slightly affected some of the company’s business activities.

Toriola added, “The resilience we are building in the business is reflected in our performance, demonstrating our ability to achieve continued growth despite the ongoing impact of SIM registration and activation restrictions on subscriber growth.

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“While our overall subscriber numbers have continued to decline over the last quarter, this has been at a reduced rate, and we have seen our data subscriber numbers return to growth, increasing by 2.5 million.

“We expect the decline in the overall subscriber base to bottom out and return to positive net additions in Q4 2021 as we progressively ramp up our SIM registration and activation infrastructure while adopting and aligning with the new regulations.”

He added that the company’s service revenue had increased by 23.7 per cent, ahead of the country’s rate of inflation.

The wireless operator upped its capital expenditure spending by more than a third to N261.1 billion, saying in August it planned to commit as much as $1.5 billion to broadband expansion in the next three years.

MTN Group hopes to sell a portion of its 79 per cent stake in its Nigerian operation to local investors in the country, which contributes about one-third of its revenue.

Data

 

MTN Data Revenue