MTN published its interim results for the six months ended June 30, 2021 on Thursday, reporting growth in revenue and subscribers in South Africa.
In the interim results, it showed that service revenue increased by 9.3% and this was driven by an increase in data revenue of 12.3%.
MTN’s financial technology revenue increased by 6.4% and its digital revenue increased by 28.6%.
“The 9.3% growth in service revenue exceeded our medium-term target,” MTN said.
“MTN continued to deliver solid growth for the six months ended 30 June, 2021, against the backdrop of persistently challenging trading conditions,” said MTN in the report.
“Group service revenue rose by 19.7%* to R81.9 billion (2020: R80.2 billion). This was led by growth of 9.3% in MTN SA, 23.8%* in MTN Nigeria and 25.5% in MTN Ghana. The Group also benefited from double-digit overall top-line growth from the regions. We continued to deliver solid results in our industry-leading connectivity operations. Voice revenue increased by 8.9%*, supported by growth in voice traffic of 12.3% YoY. The performance was also supported by our well-executed customer value management (CVM) initiatives and segmented customer propositions,” the network added.
Data revenue expanded by 32.2% on the back of a 56.4% increase in data usage (to 0.9GB per user per month), with sustained levels of online demand brought about by the effects of the pandemic.
At June 30, 2021, MTN had 117.4 million active data users. This is up 3.1 million. In H1 MTN increased the number of people in their 3G and 4G coverage, adding 7.5 million and 25.0 million respectively. It also invested further in 5G in South Africa, adding 257 sites; recorded 148 million smartphones on the network (53.5% penetration of the customer base); and reduced the average effective rate per megabyte by 17.2% as MTN works to bridge the digital divide and drive inclusion.
The company reported “healthy and sustained growth” in various consumer business units. MTN’s revenue growth was as follows per business unit.
Prepaid — 4.0%
Postpaid — 7.3%
Enterprise — 14.1%
Wholesale — 62.4%
BUSINESS REPORT