MTN Nigeria Records Solid Performance in H1, 2019

• MTN Nigeria Records Solid Performance in H1, 2019

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc posted a 12.12 percent increase in revenue in the first half of 2019.

The unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2019 revealed that the telecom giant generated N566.946 billion in the first half, up from N505.667 billion realised during the same period of 2018.

Operating profit grew by 39.49 percent to N190.403 billion during the same period, again higher than the N136.501 billion recorded in the same period of 2018.

MTN Nigeria grew profit before tax by 30.86 percent from N108.354 billion to N141.797 billion. While profit for the first half of 2019 rose by 34.79 percent to N98.930 billion, up from N73.395 billion recorded a year ago.

Mobile subscribers increased by 3.3. million to 61.5 million during the period, giving MTN Nigeria edge over competitors and opportunity to push new products to the existing customers.

The report showed data revenue grew by 31.7 percent, largely due to the surge in the number of smartphone users.

The company said it added 2.5 million smartphones in the first half, increasing smartphone penetration by 2.1 percent to 39.2 percent.

Also, active data subscribers grew by 11 percent to 20.7 million while data traffic rose by 67 percent year-on-year.

The fintech unit of the company rose 21.2 percent year-on-year. This was before the company announced it has been granted super-agent fintech licence to offer a wide range of mobile financial services.

This should create additional opportunities and help the telecom giant further grow its revenue.

Key Highlights

• Service revenue grew by 12.2 percent
• Voice revenue expanded by 11.4 percent
• Data revenue increased by 31.7 percent
• Fintech revenue rose by 21.2 percent
• Digital revenue declined by 64.5 percent
• Mobile subscribers grew by 3.3 million to 61.5 million
• Data subscribers rose by 2.1 million to 20.7 million

According to Ferdi Moolman, MTN Nigeria CEO, “We added 3.3 million customers to our network, increasing subscriber base to 61.5 million. Pleasingly, we saw data subscribers increase in the period by 2.1 million to 20.7 million.

“We made significant network investments to improve network quality and expand our 4G coverage. Our recent effort to revamp our data prices and accelerate our 4G network put us in a strong competitive position to offer more value to our customers, supporting data and voice revenue growth which will ultimately strengthen our business.

“We are pleased with obtaining a super-agent license from the Central Bank of Nigeria, which will enable us to build agent network and accelerate the growth our Fintech business.”

The company’s market capitalisation jumped 100 percent to N2.626 trillion.