MTN Nigeria reported a half-year revenues of N638 billion in 2020 compared to N566.9 billion reported same period last year. The 12.5% pop was driven by growth in data revenues in the first and second quarters of the year.
The company reported a 49% growth in data revenues in the second quarter of 2020 as its Nigerian customers guzzled more data in the ensuing Covid-19 economic shutdown.
The revenues reported in the first half of 2020 now translate to about N100 billion monthly in revenues, a company and Nigerian Stock Market record, according to Nairametrics Research. Revenues averaged N97 billion monthly in 2019 and N86.5 billion in 2018.
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Key highlights
- In the second quarter of 2020 total revenues rose 8.5% to N308.9 billion driven largely by higher data revenues.
- Data revenues jumped from N56.7 billion to N79.9 billion in the quarter under review confirming the growing reliance Nigerians have on data for communication.
- Call revenues, the company’s mainstay suffered a 1% drop to N176.2 billion suggesting a drop in its average revenue per user. Call revenues make up about 68% of its service revenues. Mobile subscriber growth was just 3.8% in the quarter.
- Revenues from its Fintech division fell 7.7% to N10.2 billion in the quarter. It however rose by 29.6% in the first half of 2020 compared to the year before.
- MTN has aggressively pushed its Fintech business leveraging on its economies of scale to gobble market share.
- Pre-tax Profits for the quarter was N62.2 billion down 13.4% YoY.
- Earnings per share N2.11/N2.4 15.6% up QoQ. The earnings per share dip was due to higher operating expenses
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Company’s explanation
- The company explains the growth in data revenue was driven by growth in data usage and traffic. The company added 2 million new data subscribers in the quarter compared to 1.8 million in the first quarter.
- The company also explained that data traffic rose 27.2% QoQ (141.2% YoY) while usage measured in megabyte per user rose 23.3% QoQ (76% YoY).
- MTN also claims it brought in 4 million new smartphones in the first half of 2020.
- In its Fintech division, the company explained its growth was driven by its airtime lending service and expansion in its agent network.
- Its total number of registered agents is now 220,000 while total transaction volume has risen to 14.6 million driven by its 2.2 million-plus subscribers.
- MTN also complained that port congestion and scarcity of foreign exchange rate affected its capital expenditure plans, especially in the first half of the year.
- Capital expenditure for the quarter was N47.5 billion compared to N40 billion same period in 2020. However, on a half-year basis, capital expenditure is down 21% to N76 billion.
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