MTN Nigeria subscribers down 14.3% in six months
MTN GROUP reported that its subscriber base in Nigeria declined 14.3% to 53.1 million in six months. This follows a review of subscriber definitions and a decrease in connections as a result of new regulations that require all subscriber connections to take place in permanent structures.
Despite this, MTN said total revenue from its Nigerian operations increased 10.8%, largely because of a 70% growth in revenue from data services.
MTN yesterday released its interim results for the six months to the end of June.
MTN said it would continue to focus on growing its market in Nigeria, despite the challenging macro-economic environment. It would review and optimise subscriber definitions and value-added services (VAS) subscriptions, which would place some short-term pressure on net subscriber additions and VAS revenue.
Nigeria is MTN’s largest market with at least a quarter of its 240m subscribers.
MTN Nigeria is still reeling from the $1 billion (R13.3bn) fine imposed by Nigerian regulators because it failed to deactivate more than five million unregistered SIM cards. Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator was initially fined $5.2bn. The fine was reduced after negotiations with the Nigerian government.
In March, MTN posted its first annual loss of R1.4bn after the fine paid to the Nigerian government wiped a third off its earnings.
MTN said it continued to make progress with preparations to list MTN Nigeria shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. It expected to complete this process next year, market conditions permitting.
Reported headline earnings per share were 217 cents, compared with a 271c headline loss per share in the comparable period, impacted by the Nigerian fine of 474 cents.
Subscribers in the period decreased 3.6% to 231.8m, largely because of a decline in subscribers in Nigeria and Ghana.
Group total revenue increased 6.7% to R64.3bn, supported by encouraging revenue growth in Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana and Ivory Coast. This was mainly a result of strong data and digital revenue growth in these markets.
MTN Cameroon reported a 4.2% decline in revenue, while total revenue growth in MTN South Africa increased 1.6%.
Group president and chief executive Rob Shuter said MTN was seeing progress in key growth drivers of data and digital services despite challenging macro-economic conditions and foreign exchange pressures. – ANA