MTN Nigeria has reported its highest profit after tax deductions in five years amounting to N359 billion in 2022, a 20.2 percent increase from N299 billion in 2021, on the back of accelerated network investment and enabled growth across all revenue lines.
Its total revenue grew to N2.01 trillion for the period that ended December 2022, up 21.6 percent from N1.65 trillion in 2021, on the back of a 64.1 percent spike in the digital revenue-generating segment and a 46.9 percent increase in its data revenue-generating segment during the period.
Revenue generated from digital services grew to N22.04 billion in 2022 from N13.44 billion in 2021, while revenue derived from data services surged to N764 billion in 2022 from N520 billion in 2021.
Commenting on the financial results, Karl Toriola, CEO of MTN Nigeria stated that “mobile subscriber net addition was 7.2 million for the year, representing a good recovery from the impact of an increase in churn in the third quarter of 2022 (Q3) and demonstrating the effectiveness of our churn management initiatives and interventions to ramp up gross connections.”
“Active data subscribers grew by 5.2 million and benefitted from our efforts to drive data conversion in new and existing subscribers. We accelerated the coverage and capacity of our 4G network in response to the rising data traffic, bringing 4G population coverage to 79.1 percent (up by 8.7pp). 4G traffic now constitutes 79.5 percent (up by 9.7pp) of the total traffic on our network,” he added.
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Toriola further stated that attributed the 19.6 percent growth in revenue generated from its fintech services to the commercial launch of MoMo PSB.
He said “we continued to progress in building our fintech ecosystem and executing its growth strategy with the commercial launch of our MoMo PSB in May 2022. Our active fintech users rose by 5.5 million to 14.9 million, of which approximately 2 million are active MoMo wallets.”
He further noted that “as planned, we reopened the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) interface in the fourth quarter (Q4) temporarily suspended to enhance control systems, starting with inbound transfers into customer wallets. We are in the final phase of onboarding deposit money banks. The outbound phase will be completed in Q1 2023, accelerating full commercial activities and the growth of active wallets.”
The telecommunication company’s EBITDA grew by 22 percent to N1.07 trillion in 2022 from N877 billion in 2021, therefore bringing the EBITDA margin and profit margin to 53 percent and 17.83 percent in 2022.
Toriola said “We continued to manage and invest in the resilience of our business and networks, expanding coverage and capacity with a focus on expense efficiencies and disciplined capital allocation. We became the first mobile network operator to launch a 5G network in Nigeria, providing coverage in key cities in the six geopolitical regions. Since its commercial launch in September 2022, we have rolled out 588 sites and brought the 5G network to 5G-enabled smartphones, starting with iPhone users.”
“In this regard, we made good progress towards the execution of Ambition 2025 while delivering commercial and financial performance in line with our medium-term guidance,” he added.
The telecommunications company declared earnings per share (EPS) of N17.79 kobo in 2022 and proposed a final dividend of N10 per share.
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