In a year its Chief Executive described as challenging for all due to the unprecedented disruptions by COVID-19 pandemic in businesses and people, MTN Nigeria recorded a 14.7 percent increase in service revenue for 2020, the latest audited financial results filed with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has shown.
The audited financial results for the year ended December 31, 2020 published by the NSE on Monday showed that the service revenue increased to N1.3trillion, from N1.17trillion realized the previous year.
The increment, the telecoms firm said, was in line with its medium-term target, driven mainly by voice and data revenues.
In a year that mobile subscribers base increased by 12.2 million of new customers to 76.5million, the company said its population of active data users increased by 7.4million to 32.6million.
Consequently, with increased data usage and traffic, revenues realized from data sale grew by over 51.2 percent to N332.4 billion, from N219.9billion in 2019, while revenue from voice service growth was about 5.9 percent, to about N897.9billion, from N848.3billion.
Although the performance in voice revenue yield was subdued in the second quarter of the year amid COVD-19 induced restrictions, MTN Nigeria communications Limited (MTN Nigeria) said it picked up in the second half of the year.
Similarly, the company’s Fintech operations grew by 27.3 percent, from N35.24 billion to N44.9billion, while other services revenue declined by 8.7 percent, from 59.6billion and 54.4 billion.
To accommodate the decline in revenue from other services to enhance service quality, the company said it focused on capacity upgrades and 4G population coverage, apart from expanding its investments in rural connectivity.
The company’s 4G network during the year covers about 60.1 percent of its subscriber population, up from 43.8 percent in 2019.
The company’s overall earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew by about 9.7 percent to N685.7billion supported by service revenue growth.
However, the EBITDA margin declined by 2.5 percent to 50.9 percent, due to increased operating expenses arising from the rollout of new sites and the impact of Naira depreciation on the business.
The company significant growth in its mobile money (MoMo) business, with over 269.2 percent growth in the number of registered agents to over 395,000 and 4.7 million active subscribers from approximately 553,000 in 2019.
Overall, the company recorded profit for the year of over N205.2billion as against N203 3billion realized in the previous year, with profit before tax growing by about 2.6 percent to N298.9billion.
With earnings per share rising by 0.9percent to N10.1, the company has proposed dividend payment of N5.90 kobo per share, bringing total dividend for the year to N9.40 kobo per year, representing an increase of 18.7 percent.
Commenting on the company’s performance, MTN Nigeria CEO, Ferdi Moolman, said 2020 was a challenging year for all, with the unprecedented disruptions by COVID-19 pandemic in businesses and people.
Moolman said the impact of the pandemic has continued to evolve resulting in most people adjust their ways of working remotely to the adoption of data and digital services.
The adjustment in most people and family lifestyles were accelerated by lockdowns and gathering restrictions imposed by the government made working from home the norm for many in an attempt to stall the spread of the virus through social contacts.
