MTN Group Unfazed by Nigeria, Posts 11% Rise in Full Year Revenues

South Africa based MTN Group has reported that its full year revenues rose by 10.9 per cent  to reach $15 billion, driven by rising mobile data revenues which were up by nearly 60 per cent.

This is despite loss in revenue in Nigerian market which fell by 0.8 per cent over the year following significant tariff declines amid heightened competition.

The weakness in the average rand exchange rate during the year also supported the improvement in reported revenue.

Profits were up by 2 percent, which was below market expectations. The company only reports earnings on a per share basis and did not provide net figures.

We estimate the net profit at $2.26 billion based on 1.88 billion outstanding shares.

Over the past year, subscribers increased 15.1per cent to 189.3 million, a strong result in the face of the ongoing subscriber registration requirements and network challenges in key markets.

Looking ahead, the company anticipates reaching the milestone of 200 million subscribers by mid-year.

Wale Goodluck, corporate service executive, MTN, Nigeria reported the company’s 500 base transceiver stations are currently inactive

He explained that the biggest issue that impacted on the performance of the Nigeria operation of MTN Group in the last year result was the availability issue which included attacks and closure of base stations in the country, as well as decrease in tariff where MTN recorded 30 percent reduction in tariff last year.

Goodluck,  added that security challenge in that part of the country has hindered efforts in repairing those destroyed cites, noting that some of the communities are also opposed to repairing the base stations, arguing that if the cites are repaired it further render them object of further attacks.

SOURCE: Nigeria Communications Week