MTN Ghana says it will continue to stick with its growth drivers after it recorded a profit after tax of GH¢1.01 billion in 2019.
Representing a 33.6 increase over prior year, it was driven by strong performance in service revenue from Voice, Data and Mobile Money.
Mr Selorm Adadevoh, Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, told a virtual shareholders meeting yesterday that there was a double-digit growth in voice revenue up 19.4 per cent, which was driven by an increase in the number of active subscribers, the benefits of various customer value management (CVM) initiatives and pro-consumer activity, as well as continued improvements to the network.
He said as new lines of revenue continued to grow much faster than the traditional business, voice revenue’s contribution to service revenue decreased from 46.3 per cent to 45.0 per cent.
Data revenue’s contribution to service revenue expanded from 26.3 per cent to 28.4 per cent on the back of the introduction of high-speed internet to homes and to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by MTN turbonet, which sold over 50,000 units.
Mobile Money revenue continued to grow strongly up 28.0 per cent year-on year, attributable to an increase in the number of active subscribers, increased transactional activity of person-to-person (P2P) transactions as well as good growth in more advanced services, such as retail merchant payments and international remittances.
Mr Adadevoh said the company would continue to exploit the several opportunities in the digital and financial services space and invest in infrastructure to further accelerate the company’s growth in the future.
The company he said would also drive down operational cost while efficiently investing in capital expenditure to optimise network performance.
“We are upbeat about our compelling investment case as we continue to maintain a strong position in our market with strong revenue growth and leadership in core service delivery,” he said.
Currently, MTN Ghana maintains market leadership with 55.2 per cent share in the competitive telecommunication industry and seeks to invest about US$130 million this year to expand infrastructure.
Despite the gains, the CEO said the MTN continued to experience issues impacting on quality of service to customers, including the lingering fibre cut menace and instability of national power grid to power our cell sites.
He said together with the Ghana Telecommunications Chamber, the company continues to proactively engage all relevant stakeholders and regulatory agencies to support in resolving the challenges that are affecting the entire Industry.
On COVID-19, Mr Adadevoh said the company was exploring multiple scenarios in a bid to mitigate the impact on the business while monitoring developments.
Board Chairman, Mr Ishmael Yamson, said the overall performance generated a return on equity of 36 per cent to shareholders.
The Board recommended a final dividend of four pesewas per share, bringing the total dividend for the year 2019 to six pesewas per share, which was approved by the shareholders.
