by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE pan-African mobile operator, MTN, has this year invested R6,4 billion (US$337,7 million) in its network and platforms amid crises in South Africa.
Ralph Mupita, MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer, revealed the spending as the company released its results for the first quarter of 2023.
“Over and above reduced economic activity in South Africa, MTN South Africa’s network availability remained under pressure due to ongoing power outages across the country,” he said.
At the time of the publication of results on Thursday, Mupita noted there were approximately 90 days of load shedding in Q1 2023 compared to 14 days in Q1 2022.
“Against this challenging backdrop we continued to implement proactive measures to sustain top-line growth and mitigate against inflationary pressures,” Mupita added.
He said the investment to support the structurally higher demand for data and fintech.
MTN has reported group service revenue growth of over 15 percent to R52,831 billion.
The results for the period ending March 31 are comparable to the same period in 2022.
This growth is supported by total subscribers increasing by 5,2 percent to 290,6 million, voice revenue growth of 6,6 and data revenue up by 26,9 percent.
Active data subscribers are up by 11,9 percent to 140.4 million and active Mobile Money (MoMo) users increased by 5,2 percent to 61,7 million.
Fintech transaction volumes increased by 38,8 percent to 4,1 billion.
“MTN’s resilient business model and operational execution enabled us to continue to successfully navigate difficult macroeconomic, geopolitical and regulatory conditions in Q1 2023,” Mupita said.
– CAJ News