MTN Ghana has reported a GH¢2.77 billion profit for the first nine months of 2023, marking a 32% year-on-year growth, as per its financial performance update until the end of September.
The growth was primarily attributed to a 36.0% year-on-year increase in service revenue, driven by the expansion of voice, data, and mobile money services.
The company emphasized that this growth was supported by ongoing execution of Ambition 2025 and continuous investments in capital expenditure to enhance service quality and expand network capacity and coverage.
Mobile voice revenue grew by 14.5% year-on-year to ¢2.7 billion. However, the National Communications Authority’s (NCA) directive on SIM disconnections resulted in a 9.3% year-on-year decrease in the subscriber base to 25.8 million, causing a 28.1% decrease in revenue from voice services.
Revenue from data services surged by 47.6% year-on-year to ¢4.1 billion, driven by an increase in the number of active users and higher data consumption per active user. Data traffic increased by 39.6% year-on-year, with the contribution of data revenue to service revenue rising from 39.5% to 42.8% year-on-year.
In the mobile money sector, revenue increased by 51.6% year-on-year to GH¢2.1 billion, supported by substantial growth in cash-out revenue, advanced services revenue, and peer-to-peer (P2P) revenue. The contribution of MoMo revenue to service revenue increased from 19.1% to 21.3% year-on-year.
Nevertheless, digital revenue decreased by 15.0% year-on-year to ¢96.3 million.
MTN Ghana reported a positive turnaround in the third quarter, with a 3.5% quarter-on-quarter growth, and anticipates this trend to continue into the fourth quarter and beyond.
The company’s Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) increased by 32.6% year-on-year to ¢5.4 billion, although there was a 1.5 percentage point margin decline to 56.0% due to the effects of elevated inflation.
“We remain committed to executing our expense efficiency programme, the impact of which continues to reduce the full exposure of the current macroeconomic challenges on the business”, the company said.
For its outlook, the company said it will continue to invest to develop its platforms and improve its network and services to unlock value for stakeholders in line with our Ambition 2025 strategy.
“We will also keep exploring efficiency measures, preserving liquidity, and take steps to strengthen the balance sheet further against a background of uncertainties within the operating environment. Taking into consideration the macroeconomic uncertainties, MTN Ghana maintains its guidance of high-twenties (in percentage terms) growth in service revenue”.