Telecommunication giant, MTN Nigeria, on Friday, July 26, 2019, said its mobile subscribers’ base increased to 61.5 million in the first quarter of 2019.
Details of the development are contained in the unaudited results of the company’s first-quarter 2019 report made available to the Nigeria Stock Exchange on Friday.
The report noted that within the period under review, service revenue increased by 12.2 per cent while voice revenue also shot up by 11.4 per cent. Data revenue, the company said, increased to 31.7 per cent while Fintech also shot up by 21.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, the company’s digital revenue decreased by 64.5 per cent.
The company’s reported EBITDA grew by 40 per cent to N302.9 billion, while the EBITDA margin jumped to 53.8 per cent, up by 10.7 pp.
EBITDA refers to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization and it is a measure of a company’s operating performance. It is simply a way to evaluate a company’s performance without having to factor in financing decisions, accounting decisions or tax environments.
The company’s capital expenditure (capex) increased by 63.8 per cent to N105.8 billion within the same period.
In May, MTN successfully listed on the Nigerian capital market and became the first mobile operator to be so listed.
Commenting on the half-year result, Ferdi Moolman, MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer, noted that the company made a significant investment in the network to improve service quality and expand its 4G network.
“In the first half of 2019, we sustained a solid performance, delivering double-digit growth in service revenue, underpinned by growth in voice and data revenue,” the CEO said.
The MTN NG boss also noted that within the period, data subscribers increased by 2.1 million to 20.7 million subscribers.
