BY Mayowa Tijani
Despite a 2.3 percent decline in MTN Nigeria subscriber base, the company’s revenue has increased by 11.6 percent in the first quarter of 2017.
MTN Nigeria says it “had a strong start to the year with an 11.6% increase in total revenue, supported by a 71.3% boost in data revenue”.
It adds that while the momentum is encouraging, the ongoing review of value-added services subscribers will put pressure on digital revenue for the balance of the year.
MTN Nigeria’s subscriber base declined by 2.3% quarter-on-quarter.
This was impacted by new regulations that require all subscriber connections to take place in permanent brick-and-mortar structures. It says this led to a marked reduction in gross connections across the industry.
MTN Nigeria has also continued with the process of excluding subscribers whose only activity is receiving incoming SMSes.
“The ongoing network investment in Nigeria is delivering continued improvements in data quality in the metro areas and highlights MTN group’s commitment to the Nigerian market, notwithstanding the challenging macro environment,” Rob Shuter, CEO of MTN group said.
The Telco says a focus on the rollout of its Nigerian data network remains a key element in the group’s medium-term growth strategy.
The entire MTN group’s first quarter revenue was up 7.1 percent by a data revenue spike of 29.4 percent year-on-year.
The telecoms operator’s quarterly update for the three months ended 31 March, released on Wednesday also shows that data revenue now contributes 20 percent to total revenue for the telco, which saw voice traffic (billable minutes) increase by only two percent and total data traffic by 145 percent.
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