MTN Nigeria grows revenue to ₦2 trillion

MTN Nigeria, the largest telecoms company in Nigeria, has released its financial report for 2022 as it continues to experience record-breaking revenue growth. 

Up until yesterday, a public company in Nigeria had never posted revenues of ₦2 trillion, but that all changed when MTN Nigeria released its financial report for 2022. In the financial year ended December 31, 2022, the company recorded revenue of ₦2.01 trillion—a 21.6% increase from 2021—and profits after tax of N358.88 billion—an 18.3% increase from 2021—for the year.

MTN’s growth is already impressive, but when Nigeria’s current macroeconomic factors are factored in, the company’s performance becomes even more impressive. Last year, Nigeria recorded an inflation rate of 21.3% as the Naira became even more volatile in the exchange market. 

The company also had to navigate a directive from the Nigerian Communication Commission that mandated telecom operators to bar the lines of Nigerians who had yet to connect their National Identity Number (NIN) with their SIMs. MTN barred 10 million subscribers by the end of the first half of 2022, and reactivated only 2.6 million of them.

Revenue Growth

Despite the aforementioned challenges, MTN recorded growth in all segments of its business. In the voice category—the company’s largest revenue source—revenue grew by 5% to ₦864 billion. Closely behind the voice segment was the data segment, which brought in  ₦763 billion. The data segment grew by a remarkable 38%, continuing its steady increase from the past 3 years.

In 2020, data services brought in a revenue of ₦332 billion, which grew to ₦516 billion by 2021. At this pace, it is safe to assume that next year’s data revenue might cross the ₦1 trillion mark, especially as 5G begins to take over.

Roaming services grew its revenue to ₦159 billion, representing a 14% increase from 2021. Value-added services, which include airtime lending and mobile money, also grew by 16% to ₦81 billion. SMS services brought in ₦63 billion in revenue, growing by 31%. 

Customer growth

MTN’s revenue would not have reached its current heights without its growing subscriber base. By the end of the third quarter of 2022, the telco had grown its mobile subscriber base by 9.7%, to 74.1 million. Active data users also saw a 14.6% increase to 38.0 million subscribers. 

Despite only starting to offer mobile money services through MoMo in May, active fintech subscribers had increased to 1.8 million active MoMo wallets, bringing MTN’s fintech subscriber base to 11.2 million subscribers.

A market leader by all rights

MTN has long been heralded as Nigeria’s largest telecom operator, and its 2022 report has further established it as the market leader. The telco can boast of reaching more than 33% of Nigeria’s population thanks to its subscriber base, which exceeds 70 million. 

MTN’s revenue growth has been exciting to witness over the past 5 years. In 2018, the company crossed the ₦1 trillion mark and has continued to record a steady and impressive growth rate, doubling its revenue in just 5 years. This has made MTN the most profitable company in Nigeria, according to publicly published financial records.