MTN Ghana posted an impressive total revenue of over GHS9.9 billion in 2022, out of which service revenue alone was more than GHS9.88 billion.
This is contained in the 2022 end of year financial report, under Operational and Financial Review, which also indicated that over the same period, MTN Ghana modernized 820 existing 4G sites, increasing its 4G population coverage by 8.7 percentage points year-on-year (YoY) to 99.3%.
Per the report, service revenue grew 28.3% YoY in 2022, supported by good subscriber management amidst the national SIM re-registration programme, increased investment in the network and the diligent execution of commercial initiatives in voice, data and mobile money services.
In spite of being declared SMP two years prior, and the implementation of measures to curtail its growth, the telecoms market leader added 3.3 million subscribers to its base and invested GHS2.1 billion in total capex to support the modernization of infrastructure, improve IT systems and expand network capacity and coverage across the nation.
“To advance network experience and coverage, we rolled out 400 2G, 400 3G and 1,142 4G sites, modernized 820 existing 4G sites, increasing its 4G population coverage by 8.7 percentage points year-on-year (YoY) to 99.3%,” it said.
The company also saw voice revenue accelerate in the fourth quarter due to portfolio adjustments made in the prior quarter, which helped to drive a 24.5% YoY increase in voice revenue to GHS3.3 billion. The contribution of voice to total service revenue declined from 34.1% to 33.1%.
MTN attributed the increase in voice revenue to “Our work on customer acquisition and customer value management, which enabled us reconnect our customers through tailored offers.”
Data revenue, on the other hand, increased by 39.8% YoY to GHS3.9 billion. This was supported by various commercial interventions which helped drive growth in active data users (+8.3% YoY) and consequently increased traffic (+46.6% YoY) from both home and mobile subscribers.
The contribution of data revenue to total service revenue therefore increased from 36.0% to 39.2% YoY.
E-levy hit MoMo Revenue
However, mobile money (MoMo) revenue suffered post the implementation of the e-levy in May 2022, even though MTN expanded the MoMo ecosystem by growing active MoMo merchants by 4.8% YoY and MoMo agents by 17.2% YoY, and increased active MoMo users by 15.0% YoY.
MTN also launched a MoMo Business app and continued to drive growth in MoMo advanced service offerings such as retail merchant payments, micro-loans, micro-insurance and international remittances, adding that all those efforts supported an 11.6% YoY growth in MoMo revenue to GHS1.9 billion.
But the gains would have been higher if not for e-levy, and that is reflected in the contribution of Mobile Money revenue to total service revenue, which decreased from 22.5% to 19.6% YoY.
For sometime now, MTN’s digital revenue has been declining, and 2022 was no different. The company recorded an 18.8% YoY decline in digital revenue to GHS144 million due to a decrease in active digital subscribers (-15.9% YoY), as a result of initiatives to enhance customer experience and rationalise it digital product portfolio.
MTN reported that it improved the music and gaming offerings with the launch of the Mdundo music service and refreshed ayoba with a new gaming section that includes Subway Surfer which is expected to boost customer usage and experience.
The contribution of digital revenue to total service revenue therefore decreased from 2.3%
to 1.5% YoY.
Spend Discipline
In spite of the harsh economic conditions, underpinned by rising inflation, which led to an increase in operational costs, MTN reports that it continued to explore efficiencies and applied spend discipline which helped to contain the growth in total costs (+25.3% YoY) to be lower than the average monthly inflation of 31.5%.
“This supported growth in EBITDA by 30.9% YoY and a margin expansion of 1.1 percentage points to 56.1%,” it said.
Again, finance costs increased by only 6.9% YoY, as a result of effective management of liabilities amid higher interest rates on debt facilities and the impact of the depreciation of the Ghana cedi on dollar denominated leases. Finance income increased by 161.3% YoY on gains from the investment of surplus cash in call and fixed-term deposits. The net result of this was a 26.5% YoY decline in our net finance cost and a 42.7% YoY increase in profit after tax.
