MTN Nigeria communication posts 20.16% growth in PAT to N358.8bn
By Philemon Adedeji
The Nigerian Mobile telecommunication company, MTN Nigeria Plc has released its audited financial results ended December 31, 2022 reporting a remarkable 20.16 per cent increased in profit to N358.8 billion in full year 2022 from N298.654 billion in previous year 2021.
The key factors that contribute to growth in profit are revenue generated from mobile subscribers, active data, active fintech and service revenue.
From the released statement on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), the Profit Before Tax reported for the period grew significantly to N533.9 billion in 12 months of 2022 from N436.687 billion in 12 months of 2021, reflecting an increase of 22.28 per cent.
From the profit and loss figures, the group revenue gained a decent 21.64 per cent from N1. 65 trillion in 12 months of 2021 to N2.01 trillion in 12 months of 2022
The breakdown of revenue revealed that the revenue generated from Mobile subscribers increased by 10.5 per cent to 75.6 million added 7.2 million subscribers in 2022, as revenue generated from Active data users increased by 15.3 per cent to 39.5 million added 5.2 million active users in 2022.
While, revenue generated from Active fintech subscribers surge by 57.5 per cent to 14.9 million. 2.0 million active mobile money (MoMo) wallets since the launch of PSB and revenue generated from Service increased by 21.5 per cent to N2.0 trillion.
Earnings per share (EPS) recorded for the period rose by 21.3 per cent to N17.79 kobo in 2022 financial year from N14.67 Kobo achieved in the corresponding year.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Karl Toriola commented that navigating a challenging operating environment “2022 was challenging due to global macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility, resulting in higher inflation, supply chain uncertainties, foreign exchange volatility and availability. In Nigeria, Inflation reached a 17-year high of 21.5 per cent in November before moderating slightly to 21.3 per cent in December, bringing the average for the year to 18.8 per cent and putting pressure on consumer spending.
To curb rising inflation, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) increased interest rates four times in 2022, bringing the Monetary Policy Rate to 16.5 per cent – up by five pp during the year. This was further raised by 1pp in January 2023 to 17.5 per cent.
We continued to manage and invest in the resilience of our business and networks, expanding coverage and capacity with a focus on expense efficiencies and disciplined capital allocation. We became the first mobile network operator to launch a 5G network in Nigeria, providing coverage in key cities in the six geopolitical regions.
Since its commercial launch in September 2022, we have rolled out 588 sites and brought the 5G network to 5G-enabled smartphones, starting with iPhone users.
In this regard, we made good progress towards the execution of Ambition 2025 while delivering commercial and financial performance in line with our medium-term guidance.
We are committed to creating shared value for our stakeholders in line with our Ambition 2025 strategy in which Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices remain at the core of everything we do.
In terms of eco-responsibility priorities, we advanced our work towards Net Zero as we continue to drive our Project Zero programme leveraging the latest technologies and service partnerships to deliver greater energy efficiencies, lower carbon emissions, reduce risks and improve cost controls.
In furtherance of our work to build sustainable societies, in 2022, we deployed approximately N2 billion into corporate social investment programmes through the MTN Nigeria Foundation to drive youth empowerment and address national priority issues.
These programmes included medical outreach, scholarship awards and female entrepreneur training under the Y’elloprenuer initiative.
Furthermore, solar-powered boreholes were donated to 34 communities, and 44 public secondary schools in 33 states and the Federal Capital Territory received fully furnished ICT and science laboratories.
