MTN Nigeria, the country’s largest telecommunications network by subscriber-numbers, generated N282 billion from voice and data services in the first quarter of 2019. This figure represents a 13.4% growth year-on-year, according to the unaudited first quarter result.
The Company’s Q1 Earnings Driven By 32.4% Increase In Data Revenue.
The company’s growth in earnings was largely driven by 32.4% and 12.7% increases in data and voice revenues respectively.
In a statement by MTN, “the growth in data revenue was supported by an increase in smartphone penetration, improved network quality and a 9.1% quarter-on-quarter increase in active data subscribers to 20.4 million.”
The company, however, noted that a general slowdown in economic activities during the election period majorly impacted the growth in voice revenue.
MTN Nigeria reported an EBITDA margin of 53.3%, and on an International Accounting Standard (IAS 17) basis, the margin increased to 44.2%, up by 2.4 percentage points year-on-year and the total subscribers increased by 3.6% quarter-on-quarter to 60.3 million. This was driven by the growth in revenue and effective cost management, the company said.
CEO, MTN Nigeria, Ferdi Moolman, while commenting on the results, said, “Our first quarter performance was in line with expectations, as service revenue remained resilient with double digit growth on the back of improvements in voice and data revenues.”
“We connected a further 2.1 million people to our network, providing them access to worldwide communication services, while additional 1.7 million people are able to access the possibilities that the Internet provides.”
Result Is A Major Boost Ahead Its Listing On The NSE.
The MTN CEO stated that the growth was built on the firm’s focus on customer-centric delivery of services, and, in particular, on improved customer retention, its unceasing concentration on value for money propositions and further network roll-out and enhancement. He added that “Q1 2019 saw a significant increase in our capital expenditure programme, with focus on LTE services, where we rolled out 1,188 sites across our key focus cities. In addition, the successful transfer of our 800MHz spectrum from Visafone to MTN Nigeria will further enable improvements to network coverage and service quality.”
Ferdi Moolman noted that the company has made substantial progress to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), following its conversion to a public liability company and also, the successful registration of its ordinary shares with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). “We are now engaging with the NSE to complete the listing process,” he said.
MTN Nigeria In Brief.
MTN Nigeria is a part of the MTN Group based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The company is the largest telecommunications network in Nigeria by market share, with an overriding focus on being the catalyst for Nigeria’s economic growth and development through the provision of world class communications.
Entrepreneurship is a lonely journey, let us help you get through it with our services.
