In spite of disruptions caused by the mandatory National Identification Number (NIN) registration and wailing by Nigerians over the worsening economy, subscribers increased spendings by 17.77 per cent, from N1.06 trillion in the first half of 2021 to N1.25trillion in the corresponding part of 2022.
Voice revenue growth was impacted by the barring of outgoing calls for customers who had not submitted their NINs. A total of 13.6 million customers were initially barred out of which 5.3 million (39 per cent) have subsequently submitted their NIN and 2.3 million (17 per cent) have subsequently been verified and unbarred.
This has resulted in a loss of approximately. $34 million revenue in the quarter and a corresponding impact of 7.5 percentage points on the growth rate. Data revenue grew by 24.8 per cent in constant currency, driven by data customer base growth of 15.6 per cent and data ARPU growth of 7.1 per cent. Data usage per customer increased by 19.1 per cent to 4.6 GB per month (from 3.8 GB in the prior period).
Out of the amount, financial report by MTN says, it made N850.33 billion during the period, while Airtel disclosed it realized N399.39 billion.
An analysis of the reports shows that data revenues are growing faster than voice revenues. MTN’s data revenue grew by 51.59 per cent from N229.88 billion in the first six months of 2021 to N348.48 billion in the corresponding period of 2022.
Its voice revenue only grew by 2.91 per cent from N487.68bn in the first six months of 2021 to N501.85 billion in the corresponding period of 2022.
Commenting on the firm’s financial earnings, MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, said, “Despite the slower growth recorded in the second quarter due in large part to the restriction of outgoing calls for approximately 19 million of our subscribers (when initially implemented) in line with the NCC’s directive, we remained largely on track, delivering service revenue growth in line with our medium-term guidance of at least 20 per cent in H1.
