CEM REPORT | Telecommunications giant MTN says it generated N185 billion for Value-added service (VAS) providers in the last one and half decade.
The firms’ Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, stated this, at the Pan Atlantic University, while unveiled the Media Innovation Programme (NIP) in collaboration with the varsity.
He disclosed that its 1.4 million retailer base have earned over N860 billion while its vendors and suppliers ranging over 2000 earned over N4 trillion within the same period.
VAS otherwise known as content owners, are non-core services that is all services beyond standard voice calls and fax transmissions in a telecommunications industry
Services that fall under the VAS licence category include text messages, picture messages, ring tones, graphics, games, mobile Internet sites, videos and multimedia. Others are all services involving short codes, call centre services, call directory services, prepaid calling cards and special numbering services.
Toriola further disclosed that following the directive of the federal government to bar lines about 8.7 million of the restricted MTN subscribers have submitted their NINs for verification, and approximately 1.2 million have been reactivated.
“Outgoing voice revenue from the subscribers who are yet to be reactivated therefore contributed approximately 7.8 per cent of total service revenue based on FY 2021.
“In terms of how general traffic trends have evolved since the implementation of the directive, we have seen a drop off in traffic following our compliance with the directive. However, we have started to see a gradual recovery as the affected subscribers are reconnected to resume voice calls.
“Data revenue has continued a steady increase but has currently not fully compensated for the decline in voice revenue of restricted subscribers. Encouragingly, we have seen an acceleration in new connections.
“As MTN Nigeria, we continue to engage our affected subscribers, while providing hardware support for the National Identity Management Commission to accelerate the verification of NINs submitted,”
He further mentioned the firm’s action to help drive NIN enrolment for subscribers who do not yet have a NIN, stating that it has deployed over 4,200 points of enrolment across the country.
“We have also provided multiple channels to enable our customers to submit their NIN for verification and linkage,”
He also added that MTN now provides services in 223 cities and towns, more than 10,000 villages and communities and a growing number of highways across the country, spanning the 36 states of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
MTN accounts for 70.2 million subscribers with 70.3 per cent 4G population coverage; 82.5 per cent on 3G and active data subscribers increased by 3.4 million to 35.9 million YoY in Q1 2022. It also accounts for over 51 per cent of the data penetration and 50 per cent of smartphone penetration in Nigeria, Guardian reports.
