MTN Nigeria’s Mobile Subscribers Increase to 75.6 Million in FY 2022

February 1, 2023

2 min read

Author: Akim Benamara

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTN Nigeria) has announced its audited results for the financial year that ended on 31 December 2022.

The salient points from the results are as follows:

Mobile subscribers increased by 10.5% to 75.6 million
Added 7.2 million subscribers in 2022
Active data users increased by 15.3% to 39.5 million
Added 5.2 million active users in 2022
Active fintech subscribers rose by 57.5% to 14.9 million
2.0 million active mobile money (MoMo) wallets since the launch of PSB
Service revenue increased by 21.5% to N2.0 trillion
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 22.0% to N1.1 trillion
EBITDA margin increased by 0.2 percentage points (pp) to 53.2%
Profit before tax (PBT) grew by 22.3% to N534.0 billion
Profit for the year grew by 21.1% to N361.5 billion (excluding non-controlling interest)
Earnings per share (EPS) rose by 21.3% to N17.79 kobo
Capital expenditure (Capex) rose by 23.5% to N504.3 billion (up 18.6% to N361.0 billion, excluding the right-of-use assets)
Proposed final dividend of N10 per share

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.

In this regard, we made good progress towards the execution of Ambition 2025 while delivering commercial and financial performance in line with our medium-term guidance.
Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria

MTN concluded its financial results stating that they remain committed to executing its Ambition 2025 strategy to sustain the growth and profitability of the business to the benefit of all its stakeholders.