MTN makes more money than other networks
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
MTN posted N1.2 trillion revenue by the third quarter of 2021 (Q3 2021), up 23.6 per cent against N975.7 billion by Q3 2020, a record for the network that also surpassed Nigeria’s oil sales up to September.
Interim financial results of MTN for Q3 2021 published on the website of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) show N385.3 billion earnings in Q1 2021 and N405.9 billion in Q2 2021.
MTN making N1.2 trillion between January and September means that it beat Nigeria’s oil sales of N754.2 million by Q3 2021 when annualised.
MTN currently rakes in about N133 billion monthly; Abuja gets N94.2 billion monthly from oil but makes N143.7 billion from non-oil.
MTN’s profit after tax in Q3 2021 was N78.48 billion or 59 per cent more than N49.3 billion in Q3 2020.
Mobile subscriber base was 67.5 million in Q3 2021, down from 75 million in Q3 2020 which it attributed to government SIM card registration policy that hampered growth across the sector.
However, MTN data subscribers grew 8.1 per cent to N33.2 million compared to 30.7 million in Q3 2020.
__________________________________________________________________
Related articles:
MTN seeks $6b valuation on its mobile money
MTN ramps up N578b debt, the biggest on NSE
Airtel, MTN top coverage, download speed. But share in the loss of 3.5m subscribers
__________________________________________________________________
Historic numbers
In Q3 alone (July-September), MTN posted N414.9 billion, up 22.9 per cent from N337.6 billion in Q3 2020. This is its highest quarterly earnings ever, according to data from Nairalytics, reported by Nairametrics.
Voice revenue added N234.3 billion to its earnings in Q3 2021 against N221.8 billion in Q3 2020.
MTN attributed this to “continued growth (9.6 per cent) in minutes of use by subscribers and the success of customer value management (CVM) initiatives, offsetting the impact of the decline in our subscriber base.
“In addition, following the resumption of SIM sales and activations in April 2021, we continue to ramp up the number of locations certified for customer acquisition to accelerate gross connections, further supporting growth in voice revenue.”
MTN Chief Executive Officer Karl Toriola explained that despite the robust voice revenue numbers, the carrier faces challenges in parts of the country where the government requested restriction of service for security reasons.
“Towards the end of the quarter, our network was restricted in some locations, in line with the directives of relevant authorities and in compliance with our licence conditions, to address security issues in those areas.
“This has slightly affected some of our business activities.”
Data revenue
Data revenue, one of the major growth drivers for MTN, rose 57.3 per cent (year on year, YoY) to N137.6 billion in Q3 2021 alone due to aggressive “expansion of 4G coverage and enhance the capacity of our network to support increasing data traffic.”
Average megabyte per user on MTN rose 58.2 per cent and smartphone penetration grew 3.5 percentage point to 48.7 per cent. It says its 4G network now covers about 69.2 per cent of the population, up from 60.1 per cent last year.
MTN’s FinTech business, which includes its mobile money (MoMo) agent network, also saw revenues rise 68.7 per cent in Q3 2021 to N18.59 billion.
Its MoMo expanded to 234K registered agents in Q3 2021, taking its total to 630K and boosting transaction volume three-folds to 93.3 million, led by a 97.2 per cent increase in subscriber growth to 6.6 million.
Digital segment
Digital segment growth rose 46.1 per cent to N4.18 billion compared to N2.86 billion in Q3 2020.
MTN defines its digital revenue as any Value Added Service that involves the application in transacting (that is, application to person SMS, person to application SMS, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), Interactive Voice Response (IVR).
These services include rich media, insurance, and e-commerce services.
MTN claims a major boost in Q3 2021 was a rise in its active user base for digital revenue which grew 295.6 per cent to 5.8 million. Its Ayoba instant messaging platform currently has 2.9 million users.
MTN spent N74.6 billion on Capex, up 24 per cent YoY. It spent N261 billion on Capex by Q3 2021 against 34.4 per cent YoY.
