MTN grew its active data users by eight per cent, bringing the number to 44.5 million users in the first quarter (Q1). Its active mobile money wallets increased to 4.8 million, indicating a growth of 48.7 per cent, compared to Q1 2023’s 3.2 million.
MTN’s financial results revealed its data-generating-revenue segment grew to N349 billion in Q1, 2024 from N227 billion in Q1, 2023. Its voice revenue-generating segment grew marginally by 14.1 per cent to N267 billion from N234 billion in the corresponding period of 2023.
The data revenue surge showed a 53 per cent year-on-year surge in Q1 on increased Internet usage and improved 5G adoption. According to the financial statement Q1 results, the telecommunications firm recorded service revenue surge of 32 per cent to N747.3 billion, reflecting the company’s continued efforts to meet customer demand and expanding its offerings.
However, EBITDA faced a 1.9 per cent decline, contributing to the overall financial loss experienced by MTN Nigeria in Q1. Further analysis of the result revealed that the fintech arm saw a marginal increase to N22.8 billion in the period under review.
According to MTN, this represents a 0.7 percent growth compared with N22.7 billion recorded in the same period last year. MTN noted that its fintech revenue was impacted by industry-wide exercises of linking NIN with mobile numbers and KYC validation.
Specifically, a major part of the fintech business, MoMo PSB, recorded 50.5 per cent in revenue. However, MTN said this was offset by the 5.5 percent increase in revenue from Xtratime, its airtime lending product.
Highlighting the factors that affected the company’s fintech business in the period under review, MTN Nigeria’s CEO, Karl Toriola, said: “The KYC requirement and the delays in CBN approvals for some of our commercial initiatives impacted the growth of active wallets.
“We ended the quarter with 4.8 million active wallet users, representing a 566k decline in Q1. The growing adoption and increased activity within our fintech ecosystem spurred transaction volume growth of 25.6 per cent YoY.
“We ended the quarter with 232.3k MoMo agents, which includes OTC agents, reflecting a decline of 94.4k in the period. Excluding OTC transactions, MoMo agents were 189.6k. We added more than 75k merchants in Q1, bringing the total number of merchants within our ecosystem to over 400k.”
Toriola further disclosed that the KYC validation exercise impacted approximately a million active wallets. Despite the setbacks, Toriola said the fintech business remains a priority for the company and will continue to push for wallet adoption.
“We remain focused on our fintech priority to build robust structures that support the acceleration of wallet adoption and the growth of our merchant ecosystem.
“We continue to drive consumer education and awareness, leveraging our distribution network. Additionally, we are expanding the bouquet of services from basic to advanced services to boost adoption and monetization.
“These are important steps towards scaling our fintech business and driving financial inclusion,” he said.
