MTN Nigeria bags highest possible credit ratings by CGR

Nigeria’s telecommunication giant, MTN, has announced that the Global Credit Ratings (GCR) has upgraded the company’s national scale long-term issuer ratings to AAA and has further affirmed its national scale short-term rating of A1+.

These represent the highest possible long-term and short-term ratings on GCR’s national rating scale, and MTN Nigeria is the first mobile network operator in Africa to be accorded such ratings by GCR.

“The ratings accorded to MTN Nigeria reflect its very strong competitive position as

the leading provider of telecommunications services in Nigeria, as well as its strong earnings and cash flow which has supported a robust financial profile,” GCR, said.

According to MTN Nigeria, the ratings demonstrate the resilience of its business and positions as the benchmark of reference for the information and communications technology sector for long-dated, fixed-term instruments.

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“As we continue to invest in our network and strengthen our risk management processes, we remain focused on sustaining and accelerating growth in line with our Ambition 2025 strategy,” Karl Toriola, Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, said, adding that the Telcom company was “delighted with the outcome of the GCR rating.”

MTN Nigeria became the first telecoms firm to launch its service across all the regions in Nigeria with wide network coverage, spread across over 3,340 cities, villages, and towns in the nation. It covers up to 40 percent of the people who use telecommunication services in Nigeria at the moment.

In a period of two decades, the largest Telco operator in Nigeria has served over 76.5 million people in the nation. According to its audited financial states for the period ended December 31, 2020, the company has also created jobs for over 2.5 million individuals in Nigeria.

MTN Nigeria has contributed over N2.3 trillion in taxes, levies and fees. There are over 8,392 investors showing the diverse growth in services since there are no necessary limitations in the funding of the company. The company has kept on delivering qualitative services.

While technology and telecommunication has developed globally, MTN Nigeria has expansively covered 88.9 percent in the 2G population coverage; 80.4 percent in the 3G population coverage, and 60.1 percent in the 4G population coverage. MTN Nigeria was also the first network service provider to construct the 5G trial in the whole of West Africa.

MTN Group is targeting at least 2 million retail investors in Nigeria ahead of its plan to sell 14 percent of shares in its local unit on the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX).

“We would like to have the broadest retail shareholder base of any company in the history of the stock exchange of Nigeria,” Toriola, told BusinessDay.

According to him, “We believe that it is coming in the short to medium term. We just need to programme all that in the context of the COVID-19 situation, working constructively with the relevant authority,” Toriola said.

Retail investors are non-professional investors who buy and sell through brokerage firms or other types of investment accounts. MTN is the largest telecommunication operator in Nigeria with 39.66 percent share of the market and 74 million subscribers.