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Telecom provider, MTN has recorded a service revenue growth by 17.2% YoY to N385.1 billion during the first quarter of 2021. This is up 5.4% from the N365.2bn of the previous quarter.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Karl Toriola, MTN CEO announced: \u201cWe made good progress in the first quarter of 2021 despite the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As revealed in its reports the tremendous feat can be credited to the huge growth of data and voice revenue despite the impact of the pandemic and a decline in subscribers.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The report further reveals that voice revenue, which generated 63% of the total sum, grew by 8.0% from N226.5Bn to N244.6Bn. This growth was supported by the 8.7% increase in traffic and customer value management initiatives. Data revenue saw even higher growth. The report shows that it maintained the positive momentum from Q4 2020, rising by 42.6% YoY to N105.6Bn.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Expenses rose by 14.8% to N180.7bn, mainly driven by a 19.2% increase in operating expenses arising from an accelerated site rollout and the effects of Naira depreciation on lease rental costs.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Similarly, Capital expenditure in the quarter was N89.9 billion, up 19.3% mainly due to site rollouts, while free cash flow increased by 18.9% to N114.7 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n MTN explained that the effect of the SIM ban on voice revenue was offset by increased usage by active SIMs in its base and migration to a higher quality of experience.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This was fueled by increased usage, traffic, the boost in 4G penetration and increased network capacity following the acquisition and activation of an additional 800MHz spectrum in March 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Insights from the report show that that data traffic increased by 86.7% with the addition of the 800MHz spectrum enhancing output by 79%.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n With the huge revenue MTN raked during the quarter, its profit should have been higher than the N73.7 bn reported. The dropped was caused by the double-digit growth in expenses.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The telco however said the overall increase in expenses was partly mitigated by the comparatively moderate growth of 7.8% in the cost of sales following the suspension of new SIM sales and activations.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Additionally, the report also shows that Mobile subscribers declined by 5 million to 71.5 million while Active data users declined marginally by 71,000 to 32.5 million.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to the Telco giant, the 4-month NCC ban on new SIM sales and registration effectively curtailed subscriber growth. During the ban, MTN lost a total of 9.2 million subscribers \u2013 representing 75% of the 12.2m subscribers it added in the entire 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Telecom provider, MTN has recorded a service revenue growth by 17.2% YoY to N385.1 billion during the first quarter of 2021. This is up 5.4% from the N365.2bn of the previous quarter. Karl Toriola, MTN CEO announced: \u201cWe made good progress in the first quarter of 2021 despite the continued impact of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[606,18,69,369,607],"class_list":["post-1003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brands-and-marketing","category-telecom","tag-5-million-subscribers","tag-loses","tag-mtn","tag-q1-2021","tag-revenue"],"yoast_head":"\n