MTN Ghana, a leading telecom giant, has announced a significant profit of ¢2.77 billion for the first nine months of 2023, showcasing an impressive year-on-year growth of 32%.
This financial performance was revealed in the company’s latest report, highlighting substantial growth in various sectors of its business.
Service Revenue Soars
MTN Ghana reported a remarkable 36% year-on-year increase in service revenue, driven mainly by growth in voice, data, and mobile money services.
This outstanding performance was attributed to the company’s strategic initiative, Ambition 2025, and its sustained investments in capital expenditure, aimed at enhancing service quality, expanding network capacity, and improving network coverage.
Voice Services
The company’s mobile voice revenue experienced a substantial growth of 14.5% year-on-year, reaching ¢2.7 billion.
However, the National Communications Authority’s (NCA) directive on SIM disconnections had a negative impact on the subscriber base, resulting in a 9.3% year-on-year decrease to 25.8 million.
As a result, the contribution of voice revenue to the service revenue declined from 33.4% to 28.1%.
Data Services
Data services witnessed remarkable growth with a 47.6% year-on-year increase, amounting to ¢4.1 billion.
This growth was attributed to a 2.7% year-on-year increase in active users and a significant 36% year-on-year increase in data consumption per active user per month.
The data traffic also saw a substantial rise of 39.6% year-on-year. Consequently, the contribution of data revenue to service revenue increased from 39.5% to 42.8% year-on-year.
Mobile Money
Mobile money (MoMo) services exhibited strong growth, with a 51.6% year-on-year increase in revenue, totaling ¢2.1 billion.
This was driven by a 63.4% year-on-year growth in cash-out revenue, a 63.2% year-on-year increase in advanced services revenue, and a 15.0% year-on-year growth in peer-to-peer (P2P) revenue.
The contribution of MoMo revenue to service revenue increased from 19.1% to 21.3% year-on-year.
Digital Services
In contrast, digital revenue experienced a 15% year-on-year decrease, reaching ¢96.3 million.
However, the company noted a positive turnaround in the third quarter, with a 3.5% quarter-on-quarter growth, and expects this trend to continue through the fourth quarter and beyond.
EBITDA and Outlook
MTN Ghana reported a 32.6% year-on-year increase in Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA), amounting to ¢5.4 billion.
However, there was a slight margin decline of 1.5 percentage points to 56.0% due to the impact of elevated inflation.
The company remains committed to executing its expense efficiency program to mitigate the effects of macroeconomic challenges.
Looking ahead, MTN Ghana reaffirmed its commitment to investing in platform development, network enhancements, and service improvements in line with its Ambition 2025 strategy.
The company will also continue to explore efficiency measures, preserve liquidity, and strengthen its balance sheet amid ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties.
MTN Ghana maintains its guidance of achieving high-twenties (in percentage terms) growth in service revenue.
