…proposes N10 final dividend per share
MTN Nigeria has released its 2022 full year results, with significant improvement seen across top and bottom lines. Revenue rose to N2.012 trillion in full year that ended 31 December 2022, indicating a 21.5% increase over N1.65 trillion made as of December 2021.
Company’s expenses grew by 21.2% to N941.90 billion in 2022 compared to N777.22 billion in 2021. Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) rose 22% in 2022 to N1.07 trillion, from N877.07 billion in the previous year.
Net finance costs surged by 34.6% to N199.32 billion in 2022 from N148.06 billion in 2021. Profit after tax in 2022 increased by 20.2% to N358.87 billion as against N298.65 billion in 2021.
A further analysis of its sources of revenue shows that the telecoms market leader had a good outing in the data market in 2022. In addition to the revenue from data rising by 66.9%, from N520.54 billion in 2021 to N764.82 billion in 2022, the market share of data revenue increased from 31% in 2021 to 38% in 2022.
On the other hand, not only that the revenue from voice services increased by just 6.78% from N970.84 billion in 2021 to N1.03 billion in 2022, the market share of voice services reduced from 59% in 2021 to 52% in 2022.
“2022 was challenging due to global macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility, resulting in higher inflation, supply chain uncertainties, foreign exchange volatility and availability. In Nigeria, Inflation reached a 17-year high of 21.5% in November before moderating slightly to 21.3% in December, bringing the average for the year to 18.8% and putting pressure on consumer spending. To curb rising inflation, the Central Bank of Nigeria increased interest rates four times in 2022, bringing the Monetary Policy Rate to 16.5% – up by five pp during the year. This was further raised by 1pp in January 2023 to 17.5%.
“We continued to manage and invest in the resilience of our business and networks, expanding coverage and capacity with a focus on expense efficiencies and disciplined capital allocation. We became the first mobile network operator to launch a 5G network in Nigeria, providing coverage in key cities in the six geopolitical regions. Since its commercial launch in September 2022, we have rolled out 588 sites and brought the 5G network to 5G-enabled smartphones, starting with iPhone users,” Karl Toriola, MTN Nigeria CEO, said.
MTN Nigeria in the course of 2022 committed N2 billion to its corporate social responsibility projects.
“In furtherance of our work to build sustainable societies, in 2022, we deployed approximately N2 billion into corporate social investment programmes through the MTN Nigeria Foundation to drive youth empowerment and address national priority issues. These programmes included medical outreach, scholarship awards and female entrepreneur training under the Y’elloprenuer initiative.
“Furthermore, solar-powered boreholes were donated to 34 communities, and 44 public secondary schools in 33 states and the Federal Capital Territory received fully furnished ICT and science laboratories,” MTN Nigeria said in a note to investors.
MTN Nigeria increased its mobile subscribers to 75.6 million, gaining 7.2 million new subscribers last year. Active data users stood at 39.5 million, up by additional 5.2 million in 2022. Active Fintech users stood at 14.9 million users, representing additional 2 million users on its MoMo wallets in 2022.
Its Annual General Meeting will hold on 18 April 2023 where the shareholders will have the opportunity to ratify the proposal to pay a final dividend of N10 per share, which if approved, will bring the total dividend paid by the company to N15.60 in full year 2022 following the declaration of an interim dividend of N5.60 in August 2022.
