MTN has hinged the decline in its revenue on challenges in Nigeria and conflict in Sudan. In its financial statement for period ended December 31, 2024, announced yesterday in Johanesburg, South Africa, MTN said the results were impacted by foreign exchange depreciation, particularly the Nigerian naira as well as the conflict in Sudan.

According to the report, group service revenue decreased by 15.4 per cent on a reported basis to R177.8 billion, but increased by 13.8 per cent in constant currency (up 14.4 per cent excluding MTN Sudan).

MTN said its data revenue decreased by 12.3 per cent on a reported basis, but increased by 21.9 per cent in constant currency, it notes, adding that fintech revenue increased by 11 per cent.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) decreased by 33.5 per cent, and EBITDA margin decreased by 8.9 percentage points.
MTN disclosed that basic earnings per share decreased by more than 100 per cent to a loss of -531 cents, while reported headline EPS decreased by 68.9 per cent to 98 cents.

The firm noted that total subscribers increased by 2.2 per cent to 290.9 million and active data subscribers increased by 7.7 per cent to 157.8 million.
Mobile Money (MoMo) monthly active users (MAU) increased by 0.9 per cent to 63.1 million, with data traffic increasing by 32.6 er cent to 19 459 petabytes.

It revealed that fintech transaction volumes increased by 15.3 per cent to 20.3 billion. MTN Group president and CEO, Ralph Mupita, said: “We are pleased to report a strong underlying performance and strategic execution for FY 2024, despite challenges in the operating environment.

“We are encouraged by the relative stability of some important key macro-economic indicators in H2 – such as inflation and foreign exchange rates in certain of our key markets. This provided support to our results in the period, with a pleasingly positive momentum in H2 earnings, free cash flow and leverage ratio.”

Meanwhile, the telco planned to spin off its fintech operations in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda during the first half of 2025. This move is part of a broader reorganisation that will enable Mastercard Inc. to acquire a minority stake in the high-growth units.

Mupita disclosed this yesterday during an interview with Bloomberg. The telecommunications giant is required to separate its fintech businesses in these three markets to finalize a deal struck with Mastercard in 2023.

While the spin-off processes are more advanced in Uganda and Ghana, Nigeria presents additional regulatory complexities. Mupita noted that Nigeria has “a bit more complexity with some more regulatory processes to work through.”

Despite these challenges, MTN said it remained committed to completing the reorganisation across all three markets. In addition to its fintech ambitions, MTN is exploring network-sharing agreements, aligning with a trend already prevalent in European markets.

This strategy could help the company optimize infrastructure costs and improve service delivery.The deal with Mastercard values MTN’s fintech unit at $5.2billion, with the payments giant expected to acquire a stake worth up to $200 million.