MTN Group reports increased revenue and subscriber base, while expanding fintech and fibre businesses despite challenges

Despite facing numerous challenges in 2023, MTN Group successfully managed to witness significant growth in its revenue and subscriber base. The telecommunications company reported a revenue surge of 13.5% to R210 billion ($11 billion). Data revenue contributed R84 billion ($4.4 billion), voice revenue R83 billion ($4.3 billion), and MTN MoMo, the firm’s fintech arm, R21 billion ($1.11 billion).

This growth came amidst difficulties posed by high inflation of around 16.7%, currency volatility, scarcity of resources, and ongoing political unrest in several markets, particularly in Sudan.

Simultaneous to these achievements, the total number of active users rose to 295 million across all markets. This includes an increase of over 9% in active data subscribers to 150 million, and a 5% rise in active mobile money users reaching 72.5 million.

The volume of fintech transactions also experienced an approximate one-third growth to 17.6 billion. Furthermore, transaction values on the fintech platform soared to $272 billion.

A report by Innovation Village in October 2023 highlighted that MTN Nigeria’s mobile money sector was steadily growing along with an uptick in active wallets to 3.5 million, which contributed to the fintech user base. However, with the devaluation of the naira, operating expenses increased by 34.7%, and profit before tax saw a decrease of 42%.

Amidst hardships like load shedding in South Africa, MTN Group disclosed that it has invested in significant capital projects to enhance its operations. The telco pumped R10 billion ($527 million) into projects to boost network capacity and power resilience. Additionally, over R2.6 billion ($137 million) was allocated towards reinforcing power and security resilience.

In addition to these developments, MTN South Africa witnessed significant growth in its consumer postpaid, enterprise, and wholesale businesses. By the end of the year, MTN reported that approximately 95% of its entire infrastructure was operational, with sites where resilience investments have been completed boasting a network availability rate of 98%.

Further highlighting its continual strides in enhancing its fintech and fibre enterprises, MTN secured an investment from Mastercard. Mastercard agreed to contribute up to $200 million for a minority stake in MTN’s fintech branch, valuing the segment at $5.2 billion.

Additionally, the telecom company bifurcated its fibre business, Bayobab, and joined forces with Africa50 for Project East2West. This terrestrial fibre optic cable network is expected to bridge Africa’s digital divide, especially enhancing broadband access for the continent’s landlocked countries.