Uganda, Ivory Coast and Cameroon have proven to be MTN’s star performers for the quarter ending 31 March 2014 while South Africa, Syria and Sudan have marked negative growth.

This is according to a press statement from MTN that says it experienced total subscriber growth among all its markets of 1.1% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) from December 2013 to hit 210.1 million.

MTN says its Uganda operations increased its subscriber base by 8.4% to reach 9.5 million, thanks mainly to “attractive bundled offers aimed at both acquisition and retention.”

The MTN Ivory Coast operation increased its subscribers by 6.3% to 7.5 million, owing to what MTN describers as “attractive ‘bonus top-up’ and data promotions.”

Meanwhile, MTN Cameroon experienced a 6.0% increase in its subscriber base to 9.2 million, also because of what the company says have been “bonus offers and an increased focus on competitive data offerings, mobile money and effective distribution.”

MTN South Africa; though, recorded reduced overall subscriber numbers of 824,768 bringing its total base to 24,9 million.

“This was largely due to the disconnection of 973 064 subscribers who had been showing activity but not generating revenue as per our 90 day RGS requirement,” says MTN.

MTN’s Sudanese and Syrian markets were even harder hit owing to unrest.

“MTN Sudan experienced a net reduction of 52 000 subscribers with the overall base remaining at 8.7 million subscribers. This was largely attributable to increased competition and a spike in unrest in the southern region of the country,” says the company.

“MTN Syria continues to operate in an extremely challenging environment and subscriber numbers decreased 1.8% to 5.7 million. Security, power outages and insufficient fuel supply remain some of the key challenges,” adds the company.

In addition, MTN notes that its Nigerian, Iranian and Ghanaian operations have recorded sluggish growth in subscribers.

MTN Irancell increased its subscriber base by 1.0% to 41.8 million, MTN Ghana increased subscribers by 1.0% to 13.1 million, and MTN Nigeria “grew its subscribers marginally to 57.2 million.”

Other overall results for the MTN Group include data revenues increasing 43.3% year-on-year for the period, and its total number of mobile money users hitting 16.6 million.