MTN Nigeria Adds 2.1m Subscribers in Q1 2019

• MTN Nigeria Adds 2.1m Subscribers in Q1 2019

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTN Nigeria) has released its unaudited results for the first quarter of the year.

The telecommunication giant, through its Chief Executive Officer Mr Ferdi Moolman, said Service revenue increased by 13.4 percent, while Voice revenue grew by 12.7 percent, Data revenue, Digital revenue and Fintech revenue increased by 32.4 percent, 68 percent, and 22.9 percent, respectively.

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) margin was up 11.5pp to 53.3 percent.

The company added 2.1 million subscribers during the quarter to take its total subscribers to 60.3 million, the largest in the entire country.

“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 an additional 1.7 million people are able to access the possibilities that the internet provides.

“This growth is built on our focus on customer-centric delivery and in particular on improved customer retention, our continuous focus on value for money propositions and further network roll-out and enhancement.

“Q1 2019 saw a significant increase in our capital expenditure programme, with a 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 in network coverage and service quality,’’ he said.

“We have made significant progress to be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) following the conversion of MTN Nigeria to a public company and the successful registration of our ordinary shares with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),” he said.

MTN Nigeria is now working on getting listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange following its approval by the SEC.

The company plans to relinquish its stake in the embattled Jumia later this year. MTN Group owns about 19 percent stake in the e-commerce company accused of fraud by Citron Research on Thursday.

Jumia shares dropped 19.30 percent immediately after the publication.