MTN Nigeria has reported revenue growth of 17.2 per cent to N385.2bn in the first quarter ended March 31, compared with N329.2bn in the same period of 2020. Net profit grew by 42.5 per cent to NGN 73.7 billion from NGN 51.7 billion in 2020.
EBITDA climbed by 19.1 percent to NGN 204.5 billion from NGN 171.8 billion in 2020 while the EBITDA margin expanded by 0.9 percentage points (pp) to 53.1 percent from 52.2 percent in 2020.
Based on an unaudited first-quarter report of the company, the revenue growth was supported by an increase of 42.6 per cent and eight per cent in data and voice revenue respectively.
Mobile subscribers, however, declined by five million to 71.5 million which the company attributed to the effects of customer churn and the regulatory restrictions on new SIM sales and activations.
Active data users also declined marginally by 71,000 to 32.5 million, though there was an 86.7 per cent increase in data traffic and a 48.5 per cent increase in usage (MB per user) from the existing base.
MTN said more than 35 million subscribers had submitted their National Identity Numbers as of 30 April 2021, representing approximately 50 per cent of its subscriber base and 63 per cent of service revenue.
According to MTN Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer, Ferdi Moolman, disclosed that the company was supporting the NIN enrolment programme with 182 points of enrolment active across the country, adding that they were working with NIMC to increase the enrolment centres.
He added, “Digital revenue grew by 101.0 per cent and fintech revenue by 28.5 per cent as customers continued to adopt more digital products and services, a trend accelerated by the pandemic. As at the end of March 2021, we had 449,100 registered MoMo agents and 4.6 million fintech customers.
“Our ability to drive service revenue growth while managing the growth in expenses resulted in an acceleration in EBITDA growth to 19.1 per cent and EBITDA margin expansion of 0.9pp to 53.1 per cent year on year. This enabled profit before tax and profit after tax growth of 33.9 per cent and 42.5 per cent respectively.”
