CEM REPORT, TELECOMMUNICATION | Telecommunications giant, MTN Nigeria has posted a 20.6 per cent increase in its 2023 first-quarter earnings .
MTN reported its earnings to stand at N568 billion in the first three months of 2023 (Q1’23) from N470.9 billion it recorded in the same period last year.
The growth in revenue posted by MTN can be traced to the 40% growth in data revenue recorded in the quarter.
A breakdown of the report reveals that data revenue hit 227.8 billion in the review quarter, while voice revenue closed at N277.6 billion, a 7.3% increase.
According to MTN Nigeria CEO, Karl Toriola’s comments on the Q1 financial statement, the company invested in increased coverage of the 4G and 5G network which supported rising data traffic.
He noted that the move led to a total data traffic increase of 50.3% and a consequent increase in data revenue.
“During the quarter, we focused on enhancing the capacity and coverage of our 4G and 5G networks, which supported rising data traffic.
“Our total data traffic increased by 50.3%, while 4G traffic constitutes 81.6% (up by 5.5pp). In addition, we rolled out additional 170 5G sites in Q1, bringing the population coverage to 4% and expanding the network experience to more smartphone users.
“As a result, our 4G network now covers 79.3% of the population, up from 79.1% in December 2022, and data usage (GB per user) grew by 31.3% to 7.8GB.”
Furthermore, the CEO said the company added over 804 thousand new smartphones while home broadband penetration added 169 thousand users in Q1, bringing its user base to 1.4 million.
“Active data subscribers rose by 1.7 million, benefitting from our efforts to drive data conversion in new and existing subscribers.
“In addition, we added over 804 thousand new smartphones to our network in Q1, bringing smartphone penetration to 52.7%. We continued to advance our home broadband penetration by adding 169 thousand users in Q1, bringing our user base to 1.4 million. This was supported by deploying our 5G fixed wireless access devices, mobile broadband solutions and fibre-to-the-home connectivity.”
