A handful of people around the world have allied their growth to the impacts which global technology passes to them, and the world at large. According to Mickeel Allen who wrote on the topic of Technological influence on Society in 2019, technology affects the way individuals communicate, learn, and think. In the different part of the world, technology has constantly facilitated the society and determines how people interact on a daily basis. Businesses and many growing companies have also taking huge advantage of sufficient development in technology available for them,especially mobile services and network service providers.
Africa, specifically Nigeria has not been left out, since 2001, when the upgraded concept of communication, mobile phones was introduced to the nation, people have become more effective in quick communication to and around the world. Communication has subsequently become easier through various and benevolent network services provider in the nation.
Nigeria possesses up to four major network services which have developed gradually and efficiently as the world becomes a global village servicing both individuals and organizations. Before now, many businesses and relationships have suffered as a result of less communication and Nigeria in Africa is known to attract global attention because of its market size, with a population of about 200 million in and of subscribers’ base of 189 million, showing that close to 73 percent of adults use a service provider in the nation.
Apparently, MTN Nigeria became the first telecoms firm to launch its service across all the regions in Nigerian 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. MTN Nigeria,in a period of two decades,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.
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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.
Between 2016 and 2020, the growth rate in subscribers was 19 percent; according to the last report released by MTN Nigeria. There was an estimated 76.5 million MTN Nigeria users in 2020, 64.3 million users in 2019, 58.2 million users in 2018, 52.3 million subscribers in 2017, and 61.8 million users in 2016. From the MTN Nigeria annual reports 2020, the revenue generated by company yielded a growth of 15.1 percent from 2016 to 2020 resulting in a cumulative revenue of N5.2 trillion during the five-year. The yearly breakdown shows N1,346.4 trillion was realized in 2020; N1,169.8 trillion in 2019; N1,039.1 trillion in 2018; N887.2 billion in 2017, and N793.7 billion in 2016 respectively. MTN Nigeria’s revenue is generated from five points: voice revenue, data, digital, fintech and others.
Voice revenue seems to be the basic way of generating revenue in the telecommunication industry, with millions of people on subscription ensuring that system is used daily. This is also made up of active subscribers and is also not limited to texts messages, airtime refills and incoming calls. As the largest telecoms firm by market share, many organizations have consistently sustained the use of MTN network services because of the veracity it has developed in the last 20 years.
The voice revenue has remained on progression in the last few years, with the annual growth rate rising to 5.9 percent. The actual revenue from voice service was N897.9 billion in 2020; N848.3 billion in 2019;N782.3 billion in 2018;N657.6 billion in 2017, and N608.6 billion in 2016, among others.
Another source of revenue for the MTN Nigeria is data. In the world currently, there is hardly a society that has not been influenced by the use of smart devices. Data is a necessity for every organization and business since most or all make use of the internet, and MTN Nigeria is a leading option for the people in Nigeria. Data revenue according to MTN Nigeria grew by 51.2 percent during the period. On an annual basis, it wasN332.4 billion in 2020;N219.9 billion in 2019, N154.4 billion in 2018;N107.3 billion in 2017, and N57.6 billion in 2016.
Digital services, another source of revenue generated from numerous rich media services, content VAS (value added services) and mobile advertising.However, in the last few years, this source of revenue has been on the decline. On an annual basis, MTN Nigeria made N80.0 billion in 2016; N60.3 billion in 2017, and N20.0 billion in 2018.Also in 2018,the firm mad N4.6 million which was the lowest revenue point when compared with the previous years.
In 2020, the revenue started to rise again, as it improved by 105.4 percent to N9.5 billion. The revenue grew slightly in 2020, perhaps due to the lockdown in the country at the time, studio sessions became locked and many businesses and subscribers made use of other digital services, like social media, the promotions from social media, among others.
Financial technology also known as Fintech is also another source of revenue for MTN Nigeria, having yielded an actual growth of 27.3 percent between 2019 and 2020. Fintech refers to the integration of technology into offerings financial services by companies in order to improve their use and delivery to consumers.
This service has separately generated N12.8 billion, N21.5 billion, N28.6 billion, N35.2 billion, and N44.8 billion in the years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. This shows the infinite progression equivalent to use of technology. The other sources of revenue consist of revenues from SMS, ICT and Infrastructure, devices, leased line and non-service revenue. These services combined in 2016 yielded N34 billion, generated N40.5 billion in 2017, N53.8 billion in 2018, and yielded N61.8 billion and N61.7 billion in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) generated by MTN Nigeria in 2016 was N1, 071.5 billion, and N1, 411.2 billion in 2017. It was N1, 503.2 billion in 2018; N1,519.1 billion and N1,501 billion in 2019 and 2020 respectively. The report indicated a decrease in growth rate at an estimated rate of -1.2 percent.
Source: MTN Nigeria Annual Report 2020
