MTN Nigeria profit spikes 39%, plan to invest N600bn on network
MTN Nigeria Plc., a leading provider of communications services has bolstered earnings with more than 38.9% increase in profit for the financial year 2019.
The telecom firm with largest market share, as per data provided by the Nigerian Communication Commission, saw its revenues expanded to N1.170 trillion as against N1.039 trillion in the corresponding year in 2018.
The firm profit for the year hits N202.11 billion in 2019, a 38.9% uptick when compare with N145.60 billion raked in the corresponding year in 2018.
“Over the next three years, we plan to invest about N600 billion in our network”, the management revealed.
The management stated that the investment will enable MTN Nigeria to accelerate it 4G network expansion, deepen population coverage and support the Federal Government’s broadband initiative.
MTN Nigeria said it is excited about the possibilities that the transition to digital presents for our business, and the growth and development of Nigeria.
“We closed the year with a network of 108,000 agents registered nation-wide.
“The agent network served almost one million customers in the first four months of operation, and we are maintaining our focus on further expansion”, the management said.
Speaking on the result, MTN Nigeria CEO, Ferdi Moolman said: “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, MTN continued to deliver double-digit growth in service revenue in line with our medium-term guidance.
The management said that voice revenue growth remained healthy, and data revenue continued to accelerate, supporting a 12.6% increase in service revenue with an acceleration in growth to 14.0% year on year in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Following the completion of the SIM re-registration exercise in Q3 2019, MTN said it recorded 2.7 million net additions in the final quarter.
“In total, we added 6.1 million new subscribers to our network in 2019. Although the last quarter is usually seasonally strong, service revenue growth (14%) in Q4 outpaced the seasonal effect”, Moolman stated.
In the third quarter, we focused on several initiatives to enhance coverage and drive data usage penetration, MTN Nigeria noted.
According to the management, these initiatives include optimising frequencies, expanding our 4G network coverage with over 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 2.9 million in Q4 2019, our 4G population coverage rose by 8.4pp to 43.8%, giving people in 68 additional cities access to 4G”, MTN Nigeria said in a release.
Moolman said: “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. We are optimistic about the prospects for our business in 2020 and pleased with the continued momentum from H2 of 2019, and particularly Q4”, he added.
MTN remains focus in its expansion plan as the management said expanding 4G network coverage to deliver high-speed internet to more people nation-wide and data revenue growth remain in focus.
MTN Nigeria said it expects growth in voice revenue to remain healthy as management continues to make good progress with the expansion of our super-agent network.
It states that it is confident that the expanded service offerings will position MTN Nigeria to effectively drive broader financial inclusion as well as roll out the payment service bank seamlessly, once it receives a license.
However, the management said they acknowledge the outbreak of Corona Virus worldwide and its potential impact on our supply chain.
“While we monitor unfolding developments, we are exploring multiple scenarios in a bid to mitigate the impact”, the management remarked.
“We maintained our leadership position in network net promoter score (NPS) as we continued to invest to improve service quality and drive 4G expansion.
“This resulted in a 13.1% increase in capital expenditure and CAPEX intensity of 17.8% on an IAS 17 basis.
“Our overall cash flow performance was pleasing, with a 51.4% growth in free cash flow to N378 billion under IFRS 16 adopted in January, 2019”, the management stated.
MTN Nigeria profit spikes 39%, plan to invest N600bn on network
