Nigeria’s largest telecommunications company MTN became the first publicly listed company to hit the N2 trillion mark in revenues.

MTN first cross one trillion naira in revenues in 2019 meaning it has taken the company just three years to surpass N2 trillion in revenues.

The company released its 2022 audited financial statements posting revenue of N2 trillion a 21.6% rise from the N1.6 trillion reported in 2021 (which at the time was also record-breaking).

Never in the history of Nigeria has a quoted company reported revenues of N2 trillion in a financial year. MTN becomes the first, while also reporting a blistering N358.8 billion in profit after tax.

The company’s profits delivered a whopping return on average equity of 119.5% also one of the highest we have ever seen since Nairametrics started keeping track of company financial statements performance.

MTN also said it will be paying a dividend of N10 per share taking its total dividend to N15.5 per share, which delivers an indicative dividend yield of 6.68%.

Its share price remained flat at N225 per share suggesting investors were yet to fully digest the impact of the results on the company’s current value.

How MTN did it

A cursory review of the results of the company shows MTN recorded growth in all segments of its business with voice and data leading the revenue surge.

The year 2022 was a difficult year for Nigeria on the macro-economic front thus making MTN’s blistering performance poignant.

According to its CEO, Karl Toriola explained that the high inflation rate led to a dip in consumer spending during the year. However, the company was still able to record growth across its key business segments supported largely by strategic investments.

“Our strong commercial momentum, supported by an accelerated investment in our network, enabled growth across all revenue lines. As a result, we recorded a 21.5% increase in service revenue, above the average inflation rate and in line with our medium-term growth guidance. Our ability to maintain service revenue growth while unlocking efficiencies through disciplined execution of our expense efficiency programme led to a 22.0% growth in EBITDA and a 0.2pp expansion in EBITDA margin to 53.2%, in line with our medium-term target range.”

Karl Toriola resumed as MTN CEO in March 2021, and has led the company through a new growth phase which is termed “Ambition 2025”.

Voice Calls

In its voice category, the company reported a revenue of N1 trillion up 6.6% from the prior year.

While growth in voice calls has fallen to single digits over the years, it still remains the company’s dominant revenue puller.
The company stated that its mobile subscribers increased a whopping 10.5% during the year adding 7.2 million new subscribers and taking its total to 75.6 million subscribers.

What MTN is saying about ita voice revenue

“According to the company, “Voice revenue maintained a steady recovery as more customers were reactivated and gross connections ramped up. This was backed by our customer value management (CVM) initiatives through which we managed churn and drove increased usage from the existing base. As a result, voice revenue rose by 6.8%, bucking the slower growth trend of general voice traffic as data traffic continues to increase.”

Data Revenue

Continuing with its blistering growth trajectory over the last 5 years, MTN’s data revenue recorded a whopping 49.6% rise in revenues to N746.9 billion in 2022 alone.

In the last quarter of 2022 alone, alone reported revenue of N215 billion from data. At this pace, MTN’s data revenue will surpass N1 trillion in 2023.
Active data subscribers also rose by 15.3% to 39.5 million after it added 5.2 million new users in 2022.
The gap between its active data subscribers and its mobile subscribers suggests there is still more room for double-digit growth in data revenues.
MTN has invested heavily in its data business leading to it being the first telco to implement a 5G network in Nigeria.

What MTN is saying about its data revenues

“Data revenue rose by 46.9% on the sustained growth of our active data users and increased data usage. This was supported by our 4G network expansion drive and enhanced quality and capacity of the network to support the rising data traffic. Our 4G network now covers 79.1% of the population, up from 70.3% in December 2021. Data traffic rose by 66.6%, of which 79.5% was carried on the 4G network. Usage (MB per user) grew by 47.4%. In addition, we added over 5.5 million new smartphones to our network in 2022, bringing smartphone penetration to 52.4%.”
“We added over 500k fixed broadband users, which brought our user base to 1.2 million. Following the commercial launch of our 5G network, we deployed 5G routers, delivering higher speeds and lower latency and creating experiences that position MTN as the broadband service provider of choice. We are excited about the potential new use cases 5G technology will unlock for enterprises as well as consumers, as we pursue our home broadband strategy and bring 5G to smartphones.”

Other Revenues

Asides from its voice and data business, MTN also recorded growth in its Fintech, digital and other services segments.

Fintech revenue rose by 19.6% to N84.3 billion during the year as it continued to improve on its airtime lending business (which rose 18.3%).
The company also stated that its fintech wallet business recorded a 218% growth in wallet and super agent business as its active fintech subscribers grew to 14.9 million.
MTN MoMo wallets have now risen to 2 million subscribers.
MTN’s digital revenues (driven by its VAS business) also grew by 64.1% driven by its media services, mobile advertising, and VAS business. Its active user base of 10.3 million as “ayoba, accounted for half of” its active users.

What is in it for its shareholders

MTN will be paying a final dividend of 10 kobo per share taking the total dividend paid from its 2022 results to N15.5 per share.

The dividend will be paid out of its profits of N358.8 billion reported at the end of its financial year.
MTN also reported it as a “free cash flow” of N566 billion which covers its dividend obligations.

Upshots

MTN still lags behind NNPC and NLNG in terms of companies with the highest revenues. In 2020, NNPC reported revenues of N3.7 trillion (N4.6 trillion in 2019). NLNG reported revenue of $5.6 billion in 2021.