MTN Group has reported a strong broad-based performance across its markets in the third quarter, led by MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana.
Highlights of the period included the growth in subscribers to beyond the 300-million mark and MTN Nigeria restoring positive retained income and net equity positions and resuming the payment of dividends, the group said on Monday.
The value of fintech transactions increased by 38% to $342.3bn.
Group service revenue increased by 25.9% in the quarter to end-September and was up 22.6% in constant currency.
In the larger markets, MTN Nigeria (up 57.1%) and MTN Ghana (up 35.9%) spearheaded the service revenue performance. MTN SA reported growth of 2%, with solid performances in postpaid and enterprise offset by continued pressure in a highly competitive prepaid market.
Data revenue grew 40.3% and by 35.4% in constant currency, while fintech revenue increased by 35.7% and was up 23.1% in constant currency.
Total subscribers increased by 5.8% to 301.3-million, with active data subscribers up 9.1% at 165.8 million. Active Mobile Money (MoMo) subscribers increased by 5.3% to 64.3-million.
Data traffic increased by 26.6%.
The group said the macroeconomic environment in the geographies in which it operated showed relative stability and improvement in the period, which supported its performance in key markets, with more benign and abating inflation and greater stability in local exchange rates.
Group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) were 41.1% higher, underpinned by strong topline growth and the group-wide expense efficiency programme.
The group said the focus at MTN SA was to recover the performance of the prepaid segment, while continuing the work to sustain the strong momentum in MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana, and the turnarounds in other markets within its footprint.
“For fintech, we remain committed to our priorities of accelerating the performance of MoMo PSB in Nigeria and continuing to scale the overall ecosystem across our markets. We are also focused on progressing the work on structurally separating our fintech business,” the group said.