MTN Ghana, the market leader in the telecommunication industry has once again shown its mettle by recording a substantial leap in its profit for the first half of the year 2023.

The telco giant recorded GHS1.7 billion as profit after tax for the first half of 2023, indicating that the issues surrounding the deactivation of the unregistered SIM cards barely affected the operations of the company.

Meanwhile, the steep rise in profit represents a Year-on-Year (YoY) growth rate of 27.9 per cent compared to GHS1.3 billion recorded in the first half of 2022.

According to the financial statement released by the company, Earnings Per Share (EPS) also increased by 42.3 per cent from 0.163 in the first half of 2022 to 0.232 in the first half of this year.

Madam Antoinette Kwofie, the Company’s Chief Finance Officer, commenting on the magnificent results posted by the company during a presentation at the MTN Ghana’s first Half 2023 Investor Connect event, disclosed that total revenue for the period under review sums up to GHS6.2 billion, a 32.4 per cent increase compared to GHS 4.7 billion recorded within the first half of last year.

The Chief Finance Officer further noted that voice revenue increased by 13.9 per cent YoY to GHS1.8 billion because of customer value management initiatives amidst the decline of subscribers due to disconnections related to SIM registration directives.

Madam Kwofie also indicated that the Company recorded a data revenue of GHS2.6 billion, which represented a 41 per cent YoY growth. She thus, attributed the growth to an increase in the number of active users, which increased by 7.6 per cent YoY growth in MB per active user per month and the consequent to increase in data traffic.

First Quarter Price Revisions

Antoinette Kwofie intimated that first quarter price revisions helped preserve data revenue growth in the face of elevated inflation and an increase in value added tax from 12.5 per cent to 15.0 per cent. She also indicated that Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 29.4 per cent YoY to GHS3.5 billion.

However, the Chief Finance Officer noted that digital revenue declined by 22.1 per cent Year-on-Year to GHS63.6 million while Mobile Money (Momo) revenue increased by 48.8 per cent Year-on-Year to GHS1.3 billion.

In the intervening time, the Nana Addo’s government also benefited immensely from MTN’s growth exploits. In all, Madam Kwofie disclosed that a total of GHS 3 billion was paid to government as levies, taxes among other financial obligations.

Mr Selorm Adadevoh, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, said in line with achieving its “Ambition 2025” strategy within the context of economic volatility, the Company is among other things re-negotiating tower agreement to mitigate rising inflation and energy costs.

Mr Selorm Adadevoh said MTN Ghana is over the medium-term considering measures to improve operational efficiency through digitisation to “bolster our cost performance”.

MTN Ghana, is a public limited liability company first incorporated in Ghana in April 1994 and licensed by the NCA as a mobile telecommunications services operator. In November 1994, MTN (then using the trade name “Spacefon”) launched its GSM mobile cellular services with initial coverage in Accra and Tema. Coverage was expanded to Kumasi and Obuasi in 1997, and to Takoradi, Bibiani, Tarkwa and Cape Coast in 1999. Since then, MTN has built a robust customer base in Ghana, increasing its subscribers from 2.5 million in 2006 to nearly 25 million as at now.

MTN Ghana’s main revenue lines are airtime and subscription, interconnect and roaming, SMS, data, handset and accessories, mobile money, and value added services. Data and mobile money are expected to be the dominant drivers of revenue due to increased internet use and reliance on mobile money for payments.