MTN Nigeria, Glo, Airtel Nigeria, and three other Mobile Network Operators in Nigeria have increased their assets by N804.08 billion (US$2.1 billion) in 2019, reflecting some 0.38% growth over that of the previous year.
The telcos also cut their operational cost by some N486 billion (US$187 million) over the same period.
This was disclosed by the Nigerian Communications Commission in its 2019 Subscribers/Network Data Report released recently.
The 2019 Subscriber/Network Data Report stated that the total value of assets in the industry increased from N2.11trillion in 2018 to N2.91trillion as of the end of 2019.
According to the report, MTN reported the highest value in assets in 2019 at N1.53trillion, indicating a 63% increase from N939.56billion reported in 2018.
The total value of Globacom’s assets as contained in the report as of the end of 2019 was N598.17billion, representing a 1% growth from N592.08billion in 2018.
Airtel Nigeria’s assets grew by 43% in 2019 from N357.75billion in 2018 to N510.99billion as of the end of 2019.
EMTS that operates as 9mobile grew its assets to N217.05billion in 2019 from N162.64billion reported in 2018, recording 33% growth in assets.
The report stated that Smile’s assets reached N22.9billion as of the end of 2019, growing by 0.4% from N22.8billion recorded in 2018.
However, Ntel recorded 11% decline in the value of assets in 2019, from N34.23billion in 2018 to N30.58billion in 2019.
The NCC report stated that the mobile operators as of December 2019 recorded a total revenue of N1.96trillion as against N1.78trillion recorded in Year 2018.
This reflects an increase of 10.11% of the total revenue recorded by mobile network operators.
MTN recorded the highest revenue in 2019 at N1.17tn, while Ntel recorded the lowest sum of N4.61bn as of the end of 2019.
EMTS recorded a decline of 18% in revenue generated year-on-year.
According to the report, the company’s revenue declined from N169.15bn in 2018 to N138.67bn as of the end of 2019.
This indicates a slight reduction in operational cost of 0.53% from the figures reported in 2018.
The NCC stated that the reduction in operating cost may have been as a result of investment in capital expenditure that was more efficient.
The industry regulator noted that Smile and Ntel recorded the highest percentage decline of 22% and 16% respectively in operating costs year-on-year.
Cut operational cost
Meanwhile, the same operators recorded a huge decline in operational cost over the same period, from N2.245 trillion in year 2018 to N1.759 trillion as at end of the year 2019. This represents a 0.2% drop within the period under review.
This was also disclosed in the Nigerian Communication Commission’s Subscriber/Network Data report, which is based on the submissions received from MTN, Airtel, Glo, EMTS, Smile and Ntel among others, published on Tuesday.
