by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – MTN deployed more than R17 billion (US$1 billion) in the first half of the year to accelerate broadband coverage in its operations across the continent.
The investment is also aimed at supporting gross capital formation as well as increasing digital inclusion.
Ralph Mupita, MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer, disclosed the allocation as the company delivered its condensed consolidated financial results and interim dividend update for the six months ended June 30.
“We have also continued to reduce the cost to communicate, zero- rating sites and bringing down the blended cost of data across our markets by 22,5 percent year-on-year,” Mupita stated.
Subscribers increased by 5,5 percent year-on-year to 281,6 million.
Active Mobile Money (MoMo) customers increased by 24 percent to 60,7 million.
“During the first half of 2022, we delivered a resilient performance under challenging global and regional macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions,” Mupita said.
He lamented rising energy, food, general inflation and interest rate conditions as putting pressures on disposable incomes, operating and capital expenditure.
The conflict in Ukraine and China’s “zero-COVID” policy impacted supply chains. To mitigate risk, MTN accelerated capital expenditure in key markets such as Nigeria and Ghana.
In addition to the macroeconomic challenges, in South Africa, power supply constraints from loadshedding affected network availability in the period.
MTN is encouraged by the resilient performance sustained by the business in the first half of 2022.
“We have clear plans to manage some of the impacts and risks driven by the global and regional macro conditions,” Mupita said.
– CAJ News