Total voice minutes carried by MTN South Africa soared by 137% in the 12 months ended 30 April 2015, the telecommunications group revealed on Wednesday. This comes after aggressive price reductions over the past 18 months to stem market share losses.
Group CEO Sifiso Dabengwa provided the updated numbers at MTN’s 20th annual general meeting of shareholders.
Across the group, total minutes on the network increased by 14% year on year to the end of April, Dabengwa said.
The South African operation remains focused on network roll-out to ensure it is “adequately positioned to sustain the growth in both voice and data traffic”, he added. It will spend R10bn this year on growing and improving its network.
“Service revenues in the South African operation continue to show positive momentum and were 3,3% higher year on year. Challenges experienced with handset distribution have, however, resulted in a 21% year-on-year decline in handset sales and negatively impacted total revenue growth,” Dabengwa said.
The group, which operates in 22 countries across Africa and the Middle East, had ratcheted up 229,2m subscribers by the end of April, an 8% increase over a year ago, driven by the strong performance of its Nigerian operation.
In South Africa, the business recorded 133 000 net additions, but was “impacted by challenges experienced in the prepaid distribution channel”. However, in April 2015, MTN South Africa recorded net additions of 168 000, Dabengwa said.
Year-to-date organic revenue increased marginally, but reported revenue declined year on year with weaker exchange rates being a drag of about 6%, he said. “This was predominately driven by [Nigeria’s] naira, which has weakened by 9% against the rand over the same period in the prior year.”
While Nigeria has continued to see quarterly sequential improvements in local currency revenue, the revenue for the four months to 30 April 2015 was down about 1% year on year.
Group capex for the full year is still expected to be about R30bn. A third of this money is being ploughed into the South African network. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media