MTN Nigeria profit drops as Naira struggles against Dollar, others

MTN Nigeria profit for the 9 month period to September 2020 declined by 3.3 per cent to N144.239 billion compared to the same period of 2019, according to its unaudited financial report posted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

BluePrint gathered that MTN’s operations in the country were adversely impacted by devaluation of the naira and the unavailability of foreign exchange remained a big issue.

The telecom giant which became Nigeria’s biggest company by market value recently after displacing Dangote Cement, has also declared plans to scale back exposure to foreign currency.

It earned N654.52 billion in voice revenue, which comprised interconnect and roaming voice, signaling a 4.2 per cent growth over the figure reported in the relative period of last year

Data revenue also expanded by 57 per cent to N241.6 billion but SMS revenue dive by 19 percent to N8.3 million.

Digital revenue including bulk SMS and USSD services came to N6.68 billion, representing a modest increase of 0.27 per cent year on year.

MTNN in a statement noted that as there were no significant operating losses or deterioration asset value, there was a huge impact of fore deterioration on the business on account of a hike in NAFEX rate from N365 to about N387 to a dollar.

There are plans to re-dominate some categories of foreign-denominated costs to local currency in an effort to pare down exposure to exchange rate volatility, it said.

MTNN declared it had swiftly adapted its operations to accommodate the current challenges and market situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Ferdi Moolman, MTN’s CEO said the volatility in both voice and data revenue impacted the trajectory of the overall service revenue.

It would be recalled that the naira depreciated against the dollar, closing at N465/$1 at the parallel market as businesses opened up after relaxation of the curfew initially imposed to curtail the widespread violence that followed the hijacked #EndSARS protests.

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