MTN Nigeria achieves 12.6% growth in service revenue as subscriber base grows by 15%

In its unaudited results for six months ended June 30, 2020, MTN Nigeria achieved a 12.6% growth in service revenue year on year, N638 billion in 2020 compared to N566.9 billion reported same period last year.

As expected with the COVID-19 pandemic, most of revenue lines experienced a positive growth in performance. Data grew by 57.6% while revenue from fintech and digital services grew by 121.8% and 29.6% respectively. Voice grew by 2.8% but it accounted for 67.9% of the service revenue at N432 billion.

Mobile subscribers grew by 6.8% to 71.1 million while data subscribers grew by 3.8% to 29 million. Mobile Money operators also grew to 2.2 million, majority of which were in Q2.

Data revenue, making up 24.2% of service revenue, was realised through increased data subscribers, improved 4G penetration and enhanced network capacity. Data traffic grew by 141% year on year and usage (MG per user) grew by 76.6%. MTN claimed it added 4 million new smartphones to its network in H1, thereby brining smartphone penetration to 43.5% of its base.

Despite the revenue growth and the growth in EBITDA to N327.1 billion, PBT declined by 2% to 139 billion due to an increase in finance costs resulting from higher borrowing.