MTN Nigeria made a net profit of 298.65 billion naira (719 million USD) in 2021, according to financial results released recently by the telecommunications company. At this level, the profit of the subsidiary of the South African multinational MTN Group increased by 45.5% over one year.
Operating margins – calculated from earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) – increased by 2.1 percentage points to 53%. Regarding the group’s revenue, it has seen an increase of more than 70 billion naira (169 million USD) in 2021 thanks to value-added services which include airtime lending and mobile money (Fintech ), subscriber identity module (SIM) backup services and voice services.
For their part, active fintech subscribers increased by 4.8 million to 9.4 million, reflecting a 95.83% growth in subscribers during the reporting period. In Mobile Money, transaction volume increased by 167% from an active user base of 9.4 million.
“Operationally, our mobile subscriber base decreased by 10.6% and was impacted by regulatory restrictions on new SIM card sales and activations. However, we are pleased to have returned to positive growth in the fourth quarter of 2021, adding approximately 1 million subscribers as we continue to accelerate the regulatory alignment of our SIM registration and activation centers,” commented Karl Toriola, CEO of MTN Nigeria.
