WorldStage Newsonline– The telecoms giant, MTN Group on Thursday released its first quarter (Q1) 2018 results with MTN Nigeria continuing with the positive momentum of 2017, thanks to a 73.2% increase in data revenue and 15.2% growth in voice revenue.
Ahead of the plans to release the full financial results for MTN Nigeria on 7 May 2018, the group confirmed that the growth in data and voice revenue helped to lift the service revenue of the Nigeria’s operation by 14.4% when compared with Q1 2017.
With the group claiming to be making good progress on the Initial Public offers (IPO) processes in Nigeria, which it aimed to conclude this year, it said the increase in voice revenue was encouraging, as it was supported by the lower customer spend on VAS with a projection that growth in our digital services would resume in the latter part of the year, and may impact growth rates in voice revenue.
MTN Nigeria also added more subscribers in first quarter at 2.3 million from 2.0 million in 4Q 2017 as the business was said to have benefited from the increase in our SIM registration footprint.
“Focused on retaining network leadership, we rolled out 298 3G and 174 4G sites in the quarter. The 4G rollout remains centred on the top 10 cities across the country,” the group said the quarterly report.
“MTN Nigeria’s stronger-than-expected growth in revenue allowed the business to benefit from increased scale.
“With expenses well controlled, and the naira stable, the EBITDA margin expanded in the quarter to 41.8%.”
On the MTN Group results, the President and CEO, Rob Shuter said the group continued to focus on operational execution across our markets, leveraging off the strong network investment of the past few years.
“This allowed us to deliver an acceleration in service revenue growth to 9.1% (constant currency), led by MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana,” he said.
“Group voice revenue growth of 5.4% benefited from strong growth in Nigeria and Ghana of 15.2% and 20.6% respectively. Group data revenue grew by 26.9% as we executed on our dual-data strategy, ensuring appropriate data coverage across our footprint. Digital service revenue is a material opportunity for the group, led by MTN Mobile Money and rich-media services. MoMo revenue increased by 52.4% YoY.
“The group-wide network investment enhanced data quality in metro areas. In both South Africa and Nigeria, MTN maintained network leadership.
“On 20 April 2018, we received all required regulatory approvals to proceed with the IPO in Ghana, which we expect to launch in late May 2018.
“MTN Cameroon is well advanced in agreeing the terms of its licence amendments and expects to sign the revised licence during May 2018.
“MTN Benin and the government of Benin have concluded a memorandum of understanding which includes the settlement of historic frequency fees, a five-year licence extension and the addition of FTTx to the existing licence conditions settled by the payment of XAF35 billion (US$63 million) in May 2018 and a second payment of XAF35 billion in December 2018. Negotiations around future frequency fees are continuing and expected to be concluded by the end of June 2018.
“In South Africa, we are engaging with the authorities on the proposed amendments to the Electronic Communications Act to find a solution that would best deliver the most cost-effective coverage for South Africans as well as much needed resources for the national fiscus.
“Following the recent denial order issued by the US Department of Commerce, we are assessing both the impact and contingency planning given our exposure to ZTE in our networks.”
