Multinational mobile operator MTN has announced its financial results for the year ended 31 December 2013. According to the company, they connected 207.8-million people in 22 countries across Africa and the Middle East.
“Group subscribers increased by 9,8% to 207.8-million, notwithstanding ongoing subscriber registration programmes in a number of markets. Subscriber growth was supported by competitive segmented offerings and improved network quality and capacity in many markets,” they said in a statement.
In terms of revenue, the group increased its cash flow by 12% in the year. “This was positively impacted by a weakening of the Rand against a number of currencies in which our businesses operate. For the year as a whole, the Rand declined by 18,3% on average against the US dollar. On a constant currency basis, revenue increased by a more muted 3,1%.
This was largely the result of a 6,1% decline in revenue in MTN South Africa and 5,7% growth in MTN Nigeria. Both our Large and Small opco clusters delivered more pleasing results with revenue growth of 11,0% and 7,5% respectively, with particularly encouraging growth reported by our operations in Uganda, Ghana, Cameroon, Sudan, Yemen and Zambia.”
The Group’s Nigerian operations remained one of the strongest. “Our Nigerian operation continued to improve its performance during the year, with fourth quarter revenue up 15,3% year-on-year (YoY) in local currency. Notwithstanding the challenges faced by our South African operation, the business showed signs of improved performance in the second half.”
Looking to the future, the Group will be exploring other options. “We continue to explore opportunities to expand our product offering outside of traditional voice and expect to increase our presence in the digital space by leveraging technology and maximising the opportunity of low internet penetration in our markets.”
3G will be expanded. “Expanding our 3G coverage and enabling access to affordable data-enabled devices is anticipated to support strong growth in data usage. The continued roll out of MTN Mobile Money and broader financial services, as well as providing innovative ICT solutions to corporate and SME customers through our enterprise business unit, remain a key priority.”
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
