The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
The company expects to experience an increase in capital expenditure owed to sustained investment to boost growth
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | MTN Uganda has announced a 20% growth in profit after tax for the first quarter of this financial year to Shs 120.6bn and said it maintains a full-year guidance of a low double-digit revenue growth.
Listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange in 2021 with substantial shares held by the local population, the telco also recorded a profit before tax of Shs 168.7bn for the three-month period to March, representing a 17.4% increase compared to the same period last year.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 17.3% to Shs326.4bn buttressed by higher service revenue and continued operational efficiencies, delivered through the company’s expense efficiency programme and disciplined capital allocation.
MTN Uganda’s data and fintech service revenues rose 25.7% and 20.7% to Shs 145.3bn and Shs 174.8bn, respectively, as total service revenues climbed 15.8% to Shs 621.1bn.
Digital portfolio revenues grew strongly by 170.5% to Shs 2.7 billion supported by robust growth in the video streaming (YoTV) and the content value added services portfolio.
This was further supported by strong digital subscriber growth, particularly on the ayoba super app, closing with 1.2 million customers.
The MTN MoMo merchants doubled to 268,000, leading to a 26.5% increase in the number of transactions on the platform to 753 million and transaction value growth of 35.5% to Shs 28.5 trillion.
“We are pleased with the solid results posted this quarter and the improvements we are observing in our operating environment. We will continue to drive growth in the business going forward with an ongoing focus on EBITDA margin resilience, in line with our Ambition 2025 objectives,” MTN Uganda CEO Sylvia Mulinge said.
Ms Mulinge said while the capital expenditure, excluding right of use assets, in the period decreased by 16.3% to Shs 94.5 billion as a result of base effects arising from accelerated investment in the prior year, it is expected to increase in the medium-term owed to sustained investment to support the company’s growth prospects.
MTN Uganda has in the past years focused on 4G network expansion, fibre network roll-out and infrastructure modernisation to enhance its user experience.
This has boosted the company’s 4G population coverage, significantly increasing from 65% to 80.7% during the period under review and subsequently driving better connectivity for its customers.
“We are also investing in our network in preparation for 5G to address our customers’ requirements and support sustained growth. In line with our 5G transition, MTN Uganda launched a partnership with Huawei Technologies to align our infrastructure towards a cloud-native 5G Capable Core network,” Ms Mulinge said, adding, “This initiative will enable a future-oriented network with greater service agility, innovation for both consumer and industrial verticals, and improved operational efficiency.”
She said MTN’s focus is on enriching its MoMo ecosystem and platform capabilities to drive financial and digital inclusion.
“We are focused on scaling the adoption of payments and e-commerce in line with digitization of the economy, driving the adoption of Banktech products particularly loans and savings to support individuals and micro businesses as well as refining our Remittance strategy to increase flows from our regional and global partners,” she said.
MTN Uganda had 17.8 million mobile subscribers, 10.9 million fintech subscribers and 6.7 million data subscribers as of the end of March.30.
