MTN Uganda reported on Monday a 6.6% jump in pre-tax profit for 2021, helped by higher data sales and faster uptake of its fintech services.
The company said it earned USh490.9-billion (R2.1-billion) in 2021. MTN Uganda attributed the profit growth to a jump in data sales of 21.9% that was underpinned by improvements in broadband coverage and growth in active data users.
“We undertook an aggressive deployment of 3G and 4G sites,” the company said in its results statement.
There was strong growth in the firm’s financial technology services, too, especially in mobile money services. The company added 1.5 million subscribers in 2021.
A unit of South African telecommunications giant MTN Group, MTN Uganda is the east African country’s biggest telecoms firm with a subscriber base of about 15 million. It chiefly competes with a unit of India’s Bharti Airtel
The firm listed its shares on the local bourse Uganda Securities Exchange in December after a deeply undersubscribed initial public offering in which the firm sought to sell 20% of the company’s equity.
MTN Uganda also said it would pay a dividend of USh15/share for 2021.
MTN Group will published its 2021 financial results on Wednesday. — Elias Biryabarema, (c) 2022 Reuters
