Weak naira impacts MTN Group revenue by 18%

NIGERIA’s weak naira has impacted MTN Group’s service revenue, which triggered a 18.5 per cent fall to 127.37 billion rands in the first nine months of 2024 from 156.29 billion rands in the corresponding period of 2023.

MTN’s Group President and Chief Executive Officer, Ralph Mupita, noted that the naira’s depreciation had a material impact on its reported results in the Group’s trading update released on Thursday.

He said: “In the first nine months of 2024, MTN Group navigated a challenging macro‑environment and regulatory developments to deliver a resilient operating performance.”

Mupita stated that the naira has continued to depreciate, closing the period at N1 541/$ compared to N907/$ in December 2023.

He, however, highlighted that the naira was less volatile in the third quarter of Q3, and the rand strengthened, ending September 2024 at R17.22 compared to R18.27 in December 2023.

According to the updated result, other currencies, such as the Cedi, weakened by 19.5 per cent against the US dollar, while the Ugandan shilling strengthened YTD by 2.4 percent.

The company has not yet released its complete financial statements, so it is not known if it has returned to profitability.

However, in the first half of 2024, MTN Group posted its first loss since 2016 after the naira devaluation reduced income from its key market, Nigeria. The group reported a loss of 7.39 billion rand ($414.7 million) in the first half of 2024, compared with a profit of 4.14 billion rand a year earlier. It noted that challenging macroeconomic trends eased in Q3 2024.

MTN Nigeria declared a profit after tax of N4.13 billion in Q3 2024 after three successive quarters of loss. However, its loss was N514.93 billion for the nine months ended September 2024.