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MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTN Nigeria) and MTN Ghana (MTN Group) have announced their unaudited results for the quarter ended 31 March 2023.
- Mobile subscribers increased by 9.4% to 76.7 million
o Added 1.1 million subscribers in Q1 2023 - Active data users increased by 14.7% to 41.2 million o Added 1.7 million active users in Q1 2023
- Active mobile money (MoMo PSB) wallets increased by 1.2 million in Q1 to 3.2 million
- Service revenue increased by 20.5% to N565.9 billion
- Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 17.7% to N302.7 billion
- EBITDA margin declined by 1.3 percentage points (pp) to 53.3%
- Profit before tax (PBT) grew by 8.5% to N155.8 billion
- Earnings per share (EPS) rose by 3.8% to N4.94 kobo
- Capital expenditure (Capex) declined by 25.8% to N120.5 billion (down 47.8% to N42.4 billion, excluding the right-of-use assets)
Unless otherwise stated, financial information is year-on-year (YoY, Q1 2022 versus Q1 2023).
MTN Nigeria’s first quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) expanded 17.7% to N302.7-billion during the first quarter of 2023, the telecom giant declared in its unaudited results for the quarter ended 31 March 2023, Engineering News is reporting.
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While the group’s Ebitda margin declined by 1.3 percentage points to 53.3%, it remained within MTN Nigeria’s medium-term guidance range of 53% to 55%.
Its Nigeria’s operation is the largest operating unit in the MTN Group and added a net 1.1 million new subscribers to make its total active user base to become 76.7 million during the quarter ended March 2023.
“We continued to experience headwinds in our operating environment in the first quarter of 2023. The impacts of the ongoing global macroeconomic and geopolitical developments on energy, food and general inflation were exacerbated locally by petrol and cash shortages experienced during the period. This placed additional pressure on economic activity, consumers and businesses. The private sector experienced the deepest contraction in March 2023 since the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, driving down the PMI index to 42.3 points from 44.7 points in February 2023,” said MTN Nigeria CEO, Karl Toriola.
Meanwhile, Engineering News reports that MTN Ghana posted a 16.4% increase in Ebitda to HS1.6-billion and a 3.2 percentage points decline in its Ebitda margin to 56.3% during the first quarter of 2023.
Profit after tax increased 5.4% to GHS745-million in the period.
“MTN Ghana delivered a strong performance in the first quarter of 2023, with a 23.2% increase in overall service revenue to GHS2.9-billion, supported by growth in voice, data and MoMo. We also continued to grow our subscriber base with improved service offerings and network connectivity,” says MTN Ghana CEO Selorm Adadevoh.
The number of mobile subscribers increased by 1.4% to 27.4-million, while active data subscribers increased by 8.4% to 13.9-million and active MoMo users increased by 15.9% to 13.4-million.
“Growth in our customer base coupled with customer value management supported a 12.9% growth in voice revenue to GHS887-million. Voice revenue contribution to total service revenue declined from 33.4% to 30.7% in line with our revenue diversification strategy.”
