Telecommunications group MTN Nigeria Communications has announced its audited results for the full year ended 31 December 2019 with impressive figures:
-Service revenue increased to N1.2 trillion, representing an increase of 12.6 per cent.
-Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), grew by 45.2 per cent to reach N629.9bn. EBITDA margin increased to 53.9 per cent from 44.8 per cent, while its profit before tax grew by 31.1 per cent to reach N290.1bn.
-Subscribers increased by 6.1mn to 64.3mn while active data users increased by 6.5mn to 25.2mn.
-Capital expenditure, excluding Right of Use Asset, ROU assets, increased by 13.1 per cent to reach N208.3bn
Mr Ferdi Moolman MTN Nigeria CEO gushes about the result - “I am pleased with our performance in 2019, which demonstrates the progress we have made in the implementation of our BRIGHT strategy.
“Despite a challenging operating environment, we continued to deliver double-digit growth in service revenue in line with our medium-term guidance.
“Voice revenue growth remained healthy, and data revenue continued to accelerate, supporting a 12.6 per cent increase in service revenue with acceleration in growth to 14.0 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in Q4 2019.
“Following the completion of the SIM re-registration exercise in Q3 2019, we recorded 2.7mn net additions in Q4. In total, we added 6.1mn new subscribers to our network in2019.
“Although the last quarter is usually seasonally strong, service revenue growth of 14 per cent in Q4 outpaced the seasonal effect. In the third quarter, the chief executive officer explained that the company focused on several initiatives to enhance coverage and drive data usage penetration.
“These initiatives include optimising frequencies, expanding our 4G network coverage with more than 6,000 additional sites leveraging 800MHz spectrum and repositioning our commercial data offerings.”
“It is pleasing to note that the promising results we reported at the end of Q3 2019 accelerated in the fourth quarter. Corresponding with the increase in our active data subscriber net additions by 2.9mn in Q4 2019, our 4G population coverage rose by 8.4pp to 43.8 per cent, giving people in 68 additional cities access to 4G.
“We closed the year with 132 cities covered by 4G and became the first mobile network operator in West Africa to demonstrate the capability of 5G technology. We are excited about its potential for our customers and Nigeria’s overall national development plans.
“Our active data subscribers rose by 34.9 per cent to 25.2mn on the back of several initiatives. As a result, the ratio of active data users to total mobile subscribers increased to 39.2 per cent in 2019 with strong potential for future growth, while voice revenue growth remained healthy at 8.4 per cent and accounted for 72.7 per cent of service revenue. Voice traffic increased by 7.6 per cent, supporting revenue growth,” Moolman said in a statement.
