By Rukayat Adeyemi
Lagos, April 30, 2024 (NAN) MTN Nigeria says its total subscribers increased by 1.3 per cent to 77.7 million, as at March 31, 2024, from 76.7 million recorded in the same period of 2023.
MTN Nigeria’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Karl Toriola, said this in the company’s unaudited financial statement sent to the Nigerian Exchange Ltd.(NGX) in Lagos.
Toriola said that the subscribers, however, dropped by two million, compared to the year ended December 2023, due to the implementation of the NIN-SIM directive, which affected the development of its user base.
He said that the telecommunications service provider’s active data users increased by eight per cent to 44.5 million in the quarter under review, compared to 41.2 million posted in the same quarter of 2023.
According to him, active mobile money (MoMo PSB) wallets of the service provider increased by 48.7 per cent to 4.8 million in first quarter of 2024, from 3.2 million recorded in first quarter of 2023.
Toriola said that the firm’s total revenue also increased by 32.5 per cent to N752.98 billion in the period under review, as against N568.13 billion posted in the corresponding period of 2023.
The managing director stated that the Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) of the telecommunications company, however, declined by 1.9 per cent to N297 billion as at March 31, 2024.
This is compared to N303 billion posted in the same quarter of the previous year.
According to him, the firm recorded a net loss of N392.69 billion for the quarter under review, indicating 462.2 per cent decline, compared to N108.43 billion posted in the same quarter of 2023.
The managing director stated that the company’s net loss for the quarter resulted in a further increase in its accumulated losses and negative shareholders’ funds to N599.2 billion and N434.7 billion, respectively.
Toriola explained that severe macroeconomic headwinds overshadow the strong operating performance of the firm.
He said: “The operating environment in the first quarter remained very challenging, with rising inflation and continued naira depreciation off an already low base.
“The Naira depreciated to an all-time low of N1,627/per dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM) in march, from N907 per dollar at the end of December 2023, before moderating to N1,309 per dollar by the end of the quarter.
“Additionally, the inflation rate maintained an upward trajectory, rising to 33.2 per cent in march, with an average rate of 31.6 per cent in the quarter.
“During the quarter, we also continued to manage the effects on our business of the industry-wide directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for a full barring of subscriber lines not linked to their National Identity Number (NIN) – the NIN-SIM directive.
According to him, this impacted the development of the telecommunications service provider’s user base across all of its key business units (voice, data and fintech) in the first quarter.
Toriola said MTN implemented the directive on subscribers who did not submit their NIN and those with more than five lines linked to an unverified NIN.
He noted that despite these challenges, the telecommunications service provider remains committed to serving its customers.
Toriola said MTN would also accelerate the growth of its commercial operations with discipline, focus on value-based capital allocation and expense efficiencies. (NAN)