The MTN Group Interim results that were announced this morning show an improved Group wide performance with Uganda showing a marked improvement. MTN is a leading emerging markets mobile operator, connecting more than 215 million people in 22 countries across Africa and the Middle East. It is at the forefront of global technological changes, delivering a bold, new Digital World to our customers.
Announcing the MTN Group results, the Group President and CEO, Sifiso Dabengwa said, “The MTN Group delivered a solid operational performance for the six-month period to 30 June 2014. Good growth was experienced in data and MTN Mobile Money usage but voice revenue continued to be impacted by aggressive competition, regulatory pressures and a weakening economic environment in key markets”.
“MTN made good progress on delivering on our strategy in the period. The Group continues to improve operational and cost effectiveness as well as explore opportunities to expand our product offering outside of traditional voice into the digital space. Furthermore, the Group continues to benefit from our ongoing investment in the network, which enhances MTN’s offering and positions us for further growth.”
MTN Ugandaincreased its subscriber base by 12.6% from 8.8 million on 31 December 2013 to 9.9 million on 30 June 2014. This increase is attributed to an attractive value proposition that was strongly promoted in the market. Furthermore, retention of existing customers has improved as we see the benefit of our “Perfect 10” campaign that is improving customer service at all touch points.
This momentum is continuing, and we take pleasure in announcing that we have now surpassed the significant milestone of 10 million subscribers.These additional customers, together with our strong data revenue growth of 54.7%, have contributed significantly to our 6.8% year-on-year increase in Revenue. Our data revenue now contributes 24.7% to total revenues. This revenue growth was achieved despite the significant reductions in revenue from incoming international calls, as a result of Government’s imposition of a 9c per minute levy causing a reduction of minutes of more than 30% in incoming international minutes since the introduction in July 2013.
MTN Mobile Money recorded a 20.7% increase since December 2013 to 6.2 million registered users, who in turn now generate more than 28.5 million transactions per month. These drivers have contributed to a 39.4% increase in mobile money related revenue.
EBITDA margin improved to 36.8% on the strength of improved cost control.
MTN Uganda with now over 10 million customers has cemented its position in the market both in terms of market share and value share. Since it was launched in 1998, MTN Uganda which controls more than 50% of the telecommunications market.
Commenting on the results, MTN Uganda CEO Brian Gouldie said, “The staff of MTN Uganda are proud to have achieved the 10 million subscriber landmark. We are grateful to our subscribers, the Government and the regulator as well as our technology partners for their support to us in achieving this”.
MTN Uganda’s focus over the last year was on Network Quality, the rollout of innovative Products and Services, improvement of Customer Experience and wide distribution network which have consolidated our leadership in quality service and delivery.
Over the 16 years, MTN has made major investments to its infrastructure in Uganda. In terms of infrastructure, for the six months ended 30 June 2014, MTN Uganda added 117 new 2G sites and 130 new 3G sites. Over this period, MTN Uganda has invested Shs 100 billion in network and other infrastructure for improved customer experience, taking our cumulative capital expenditure to over Ush 1.5 trillion since inception. This has gone towards network rollout and upgrades as well as a number of other infrastructure developments to support our subscriber growth and the rollout of new innovative products and services
“The MTN Uganda leadership team is fully aligned and committed to support the staff to continue performing and excelling to ensure that we are able to deliver even better services to our customers,”Gouldie said.
He added that MTN Uganda will continue to invest in Uganda to ensure that it lives up to its vision is to lead the delivery of a bold, new Digital World whilst improving the community. In sixteen years, MTN has through its continuous investment, created direct and indirect jobs for more than 560,000 Ugandans through partnership and business relationship. These include product distributors, network maintenance companies, security companies and Mobile Money dealerships which alone total 35,000. This has greatly contributed to the economic development and growth of particularly SME businesses.