MTN Records 288 Million Subscribers Across 18 Markets, Up 0.8% YoY

…as Active Data Subscribers Rise by 9.2% YoY

MTN Group has reported a slight increase in its subscriber base, reaching 288 million customers across 18 markets by the end of June 2024, representing a 0.8% year-on-year (YoY) growth.

This was disclosed by the telecom group in a report seen by Business Remarks.

According to the report, by the end of June 2024, MTN recorded 150.2 million active data subscribers, representing a 9.2% YoY. This growth lifted data traffic on MTN’s network by 35.7% to 9,054 petabytes while active mobile money users increased 9.1% to 66 million across the group.

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MTN’s overall subscriber base faced some headwinds during the half due to subscriber registration regulations in Ghana and Nigeria, the decline in subscribers in Sudan amid the ongoing conflict, and its exit from Afghanistan in February.

The Group data service revenue increased by 21% in the six months; fintech service revenue climbed by 27%; while voice revenue decreased by 33.7%.

At 66 million, the number of active Mobile Money users was also more than 9% higher, boosting MTN’s fintech transaction volumes by 18% to 9.7 billion in the period.

Also Read: 4G Adoption Rate in Nigeria Hits 31.75% as Only 1.11% Subscribers Use 5G

Speaking on this, MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita said “To support this continued acceleration in demand, MTN committed over R13 billion in capital expenditure to expand our 4G and 5G networks and business IT systems. The Group’s balance sheet remained strong, with the holding company leverage ratio at 1.6x, and an improved mix of US dollar debt to rand debt at 22:78, well within our target mix of 40:60.

“MTN South Africa, which has now completed its network resilience investment, demonstrated encouraging progress from Q1 24 to Q2 24 in terms of topline growth and earnings,” he said, adding that the investment positioned it to provide an average network availability of more than 95% under stage 6 load shedding. At the end of June 2024, network availability was 99%, supported by reduced load-shedding in Q2 2024.

“MTN Nigeria delivered a strong underlying performance, despite the severe macro impacts on its financial performance,” Mupita said, noting good progress in key initiatives including acceleration of revenue, optimisation of capex and the reduction of its US dollar-denominated obligations.