Fintech cheers up MTN Rwanda as economy goes cashless
Strong showing by MTN Rwanda’s fintech services lifted the company in the fiscal period closing December 2022.
MTN Rwanda reported full year performance today, revealing in 2022, it increased network investments to expand coverage and capacity, and rolled out 120 sites and achieved a 98.7% population coverage.
In the year, fintech services outshined other business segments, recording strong year-on-year revenue growth of 47.4%, which was attributable to both airtime lending (Xtratime) and Mobile Money (MoMo) services.
MoMo revenue was up 48.4% YoY, driven by 16.3% growth in active MoMo subscribers as well as increased engagement and usage.
“We have seen good growth in advanced MoMo services, which contributed 18.2% to the overall MoMo revenue (up from 12.3% in 2021). The tremendous performance in MoMo has been driven by customer value management initiatives targeting subscribers and driving the development of a cashless economy,” says the company.
Voice revenue, which makes up 41.1% of total service revenue, increased by 4.0% supported by solid subscriber growth and a 10.5% surge in voice traffic as well as a 29.1% rise in data traffic.
With data, MTN says, revenue sustained its positive momentum, growing by 15.4%, driven by 9.0% growth in active data users as well as an 18.4% increase in MB usage per active data subscriber.
“Home connectivity also recorded good growth, with the number of homes connected through MTN’s fixed wireless and fibre-to-the-home solutions closing at over 6,124, delivering an increase of 63.5% year-on-year in homes connected as well as a market share of 24.7%. Data revenue accounted for 16.7% of total service revenue in 2022.”
In other key metrics, MTN increased mobile subscribers by 5.9% YoY to 6.8 million, active data subscribers rose 9.0% YoY to 2.3 million, MoMo subscribers surged by 16.3% YoY to 4.3 million.
MTN service revenue for the year increased by 19.9% to Rwf 221.7 billion, whileEarnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 20.8% to Rwf 108.4 billion.
EBITDA is the measure used to determine business value as it places the focus on the financial outcome of operating decisions and in the reporting period, MTN’s EBITDA margin increased by 0.6 percentage points to 48.3%.
Mapula Bodibe, MTN Rwanda CEO, comments: “MTN Rwanda’s solid financial performance in 2022 was underpinned by good operating momentum. Our subscriber base grew by 5.9% YoY to 6.8 million, with 381,000 new customers added to the MTN network, marking an acceleration in growth driven by increased distribution channels across the country.
"The active data user base registered a 9.0% YoY growth in 2022, with 191,000 new active data customers added to the network. This increased smartphone penetration by 3.4pp to 22.8%, with more than 308,000 new Smartphone users on the MTN network.
“In terms of our strategy to build the largest platforms, the active MoMo subscriber base grew by 16.3% to 4.3 million users, coupled with a strong increase in MoMo Pay merchants of 192.6% YoY to close the period with 141,222 active merchants from 47, 678 in 2021. We are pleased with the strong momentum, which underpinned the robust MoMo revenue growth of 48.4% YoY.”