MTN Nigeria grew revenue by 12.6 percent in 2019 after rebounding from a slowdown in the third quarter of the year to post 14.1 percent year-on-year growth in the last three months of last year.
With a growing market share, MTN Nigeria delivered 38.7 percent year-on-year growth in 2019, although cost efficiency was an area analyst at Lagos-based Chapel Hill Denham pointed out for improvements.
The Telco shared insights on the year and its outlook with investors last week. We highlight some of the main talks based on current issues.
On impact of Coronavirus Outbreak on business
MTN Nigeria said it has not seen any direct impact of the Coronavirus.
MTN Nigeria noted that while it had been through a number of issues before with its vendors it has put the appropriate processes in place in ensuring that things like the virus outbreak doesn’t impact the network directly.
“We will do things like order equipment in advance, make sure we get the equipment in the country as quickly as possible, those type of things,” said MTN Nigeria’s CEO Ferdi Moolman. “But for now we haven’t seen a direct impact of the Coronavirus yet.”
On whether tax issue with Nigeria is ‘done and dusted’
MTN Nigeria said its contention with the Attorney General always was its jurisdiction on the tax matter.
It said Federal Inland Revenue Service was set up for tax issues and Nigerian Customs Service for customs-related issues.
The AG had issued MTN Nigeria a demand letter for the payment of back taxes, the letter which has been withdrawn and the issues referred to appropriate quarters.
MTN Nigeria said every year it goes through the normal tax process.
“…and in Nigeria ultimately if you’ve issued your tax you get a tax clearance certificate,” said MTN Nigeria.
The Telco noted that the tax clearance certificate “doesn’t mean that they can’t come back and review it but it basically gives an indication that you submitted all your taxes, you paid the taxes that were due and it confirms that the tax is actually received by the government,” it said.
MTN said the AG has now sent his document to Federal Inland Revenue Service which would decide what process they would like to follow.
“And we are eagerly waiting to see how they deal with this issue,” MTN Nigeria said.
MTN described the process of appealing to the Tax Tribunal as fairly transparent; adding that it would follow the normal process around the taxes if anything came up.
With custom duty, MTN Nigeria said it noted that the AG would have to refer the issues to the Custom but it is currently having no issues importing into the country, a situation that isn’t possible for individuals or institutions owing custom duty.
On impact of new VAT rate on voice revenue
MTN Nigeria said it was largely able to pass the 50 percent VAT increase onto its subscribers without a negative impact on our voice revenue.
The new VAT rate of 7.5 percent took effect from 1st of February as part of sweeping changes in the new finance act.
“… we’ve largely been able to implement that VAT increase without any major issue taking place,” said MTN Nigeria.
