MTN Uganda has reported a powerful quarter regardless of the modifications to regulatory cell termination charges, due to a 13.5% rise in service income.
The group reported a 20.6% rise in revenue after tax within the three months to end-March to 180.9-billion Ugandan shillings with an improved margin of 21.3%. Income was 13% greater at 848-billion Ugandan shillings.
Total subscribers have been up 14.6% to 22.8-million, with energetic knowledge subscribers rising 19.4% to 10.2-million and fintech subscribers rising by 9.8% to 13.6-million.
Service income grew by 13.5% to 841.4-billion Ugandan shillings with stronger contributions recorded from the group’s knowledge and fintech portfolios. Information income grew by 32.5% and fintech income grew by 18.4%, pushed by 19% progress in its cell cash providers.
The quantity of MoMo transactions elevated by 19.9% to 1.2-billion, with the worth of transactions rising 23.9% to 42-trillion Ugandan shillings.
Voice income grew by 1.5%, impacted by decrease inbound voice income because of final yr’s interim industry-wide cell termination charges (MTR) evaluation, which lowered MTR charges from 45 to 26 Ugandan shillings.
Nonetheless, the lowered pricing resulted in a 16.5% rise in voice site visitors because of elevated adoption of the group’s improved all-network bundles, which helped to cushion the impact of the MTR cuts.
Digital income grew by 23.5%, pushed by progress in MTN Uganda’s content material income and progress in its video streaming subscriptions with elevated adoption of the MyMTN app.
“MTN Uganda had a resilient begin, navigating modifications within the regulatory surroundings which impacted our enterprise momentum,” mentioned CEO Sylvia Mulinge.
The enterprise headwinds have been cushioned by supportive macroeconomic circumstances, a stronger shilling, which appreciated by 5.7% towards the greenback, and steady headline inflation, she mentioned.
“Regardless of the regulatory MTR modifications, we’re happy with the strong strategic execution that supported progress in different areas of our enterprise within the interval whereas guaranteeing margin resilience and worth preservation in our operation,” she mentioned.
The group has invested 118.6-billion Ugandan shillings on community densification to enhance protection and high quality of service. Throughout the quarter, MTN Group and Airtel Africa entered into community sharing agreements to maximise community infrastructure.
On the regulatory entrance, the Uganda Communications Fee is conducting a costing examine to find out the trajectory of the MTR over the following 5 years. The examine is anticipated to be concluded in July and can information the route of the group’s voice enterprise.
It was sustaining its steerage framework of delivering “upper-teen” service income progress, steady earnings earlier than curiosity, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) margins above 50% in addition to capex depth within the “low teenagers”, it mentioned.
mackenziej@area.africa
