Selorm Adadevoh, MTN Ghana CEO.

MTN added 3.3 million subscribers cementing its market position in Ghana and closing financial year 2022 with 28.6 million subscribers.

MTN Ghana reported its financial results for the year ended December 2022 today, saying it navigated a challenging business environment to record strong performance.

2022 was a challenging year for Ghana’s economy, compounded by high levels of inflation and the sharp depreciation of the Ghanaian cedi against key currencies.

Ghana’s average monthly inflation rate during the year 2022 was 31.5% and rose for twelve months in a row to reach 54.1% in the month of December 2022 (compared to 12.6% for December 2021).

Nonetheless, MTN says it remained focused on executing its Ambition 2025 strategy of driving commercial execution, maintaining cost discipline, and creating shared value for its stakeholders.

MTN’s Ambition 2025 strategy is anchored in building the largest and most valuable platform business with a clear focus on Africa.

MTN is the leading telco in Ghana, with a 55.21% market share, and in the current reporting period, the telco’s service revenue grew 28.3% year-on-year (YoY).

The growth, MTN says was supported by good subscriber management and increased investment in the network

“We added 3.3 million subscribers to our base and invested GHS2.1 billion in total capex to support the modernisation of infrastructure, improve IT systems and expand network capacity and coverage across the nation."

To advance network experience and coverage, MTN rolled out 400 2G, 400 3G and 1,142 4G sites and also modernised 820 existing 4G sites, increasing its 4G population coverage by 8.7pp YoY to 99.3%.

In the year, MTN Ghana’s active data subscribers increased by 8.3% to 13.5 million, active Mobile Money (MoMo) users increased by 15.0% to 12.7 million, while service revenue grew by 28.3% to GHS9.9 billion.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 30.9% to GHS5.6 billion and the telco paid GHS3.7 billion in direct and indirect taxes.

Addressing other key metrics for the year, reported voice revenue accelerated in the fourth quarter due to portfolio adjustments made in the prior quarter.

“Our work on customer acquisition and customer value management enabled us reconnect our customers through tailored offers, and also helped to drive a 24.5% YoY increase in voice revenue to GHS3.3 billion. The contribution of voice to total service revenue declined from 34.1% to 33.1%."

MTN Ghana data revenue increased by 39.8% YoY to GHS3.9 billion. This, it says, was supported by various commercial interventions which helped drive growth in active data users (+8.3% YoY) and consequently increased traffic (+46.6% YoY) from its home and mobile subscribers.

In the year, data revenue contribution to total service revenue increased from 36.0% to 39.2% YoY.

Turning to MoMo, MTN Ghana says it expanded the MoMo ecosystem by growing active MoMo merchants by 4.8% YoY and MoMo agents by 17.2% YoY.

“Active MoMo users increased by 15.0% YoY. We launched a MoMo Business app and continued to drive growth in MoMo advanced service offerings such as retail merchant payments, micro-loans, micro-insurance and international remittances. This supported an 11.6% YoY growth in MoMo revenue to GHS1.9 billion. The contribution of Mobile Money revenue to total service revenue decreased from 22.5% to 19.6% YoY."

Reporting on its digital revenue, MTN says, it declined by 18.8% YoY to GHS144 million due to a decrease in active digital subscribers (-15.9% YoY), as a result of initiatives to enhance customer experience and rationalise its digital product portfolio.

“We improved the music and gaming offerings with the launch of the Mdundo music service and refreshed ayoba with a new gaming section that includes Subway Surfer which is expected to boost customer usage and experience. The contribution of digital to total service revenue decreased from 2.3% to 1.5% YoY.”