MTN Nigeria’s Full-year Revenue Hits N1.7tn

•Company’s income from data surges

Festus Akanbi

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTN) has declared a turnover of N1.7 trillion for full-year 2021, a milestone that analysts believe will consolidate its position as Nigeria’s biggest listed company by revenue.

The MTN Group said it attained the new height after the number of its active data users surged by 1.7 million to 34.3 million, helping income from data sales increase by 55.3 per cent to N516 billion.

According to its audited financial results for the year ended December 31, 2021, the company is proposing a final dividend of N8.57 per 2 kobo ordinary shares for the period.

For the year under review, profit before tax stood at N436.7 billion, up by 46.1 per cent from the preceding year’s figure, while profit after tax accelerated 45.5 per cent to N298.7 billion, just as earnings per share printed N14.67 as against N10.08 recorded in the corresponding period of last year.

“During the year, our total contribution to the Government through direct and indirect taxes was N669.2 billion, up 83.4 per cent, representing approximately 40 per cent of our total revenue,” said the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Karl Toriola.

MTNN cited an extension of its coverage areas for 4G services in October 2021, through December as the catalyst for the higher earnings from data.

Relative to its figure for 2020, revenue for last year grew by 22.9 per cent.

Last November, the wireless carrier secured a permit from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to start a payment service bank, and that will give it the latitude to offer many of the services performed by commercial banks, the notable exceptions being disallowance from granting credit and offering foreign exchange functions.

MTNN conducted its initial public offering in December, when it put up 575 million shares for sale to investors, about two and a half years after it was listed by introduction on the Nigerian Exchange.

Nigeria is the biggest market of the MTN Group, responsible for about one-third of its revenue.

The company also clarified that the proposed dividend is subject to appropriate withholding tax, with a qualification date of April 6, 2022.

According to reports, the dividend which amounts to N174.44 billion would be disbursed electronically on Thursday, April 28, 2022, to ordinary shareholders whose names appear on the Register of Members as of Thursday, April 7, 2022, and who have completed the e-dividend registration and mandated their Registrar to pay their dividends directly into their bank accounts.

MTN Nigeria Plc has 20,354,513,050 outstanding shares and a market capitalisation of N3.87 trillion. The company’s shares closed trading on January 28, 2022, at N190 per share.

The telecommunications company was quoted as saying that this final dividend sums up the total dividend to N13.12 kobo, having paid N4.55 kobo on the 20th of August 2021.

Through the first two weeks of December 2021, MTN Nigeria made a public offering to sell 575 million ordinary shares to Nigerians at the price of N169 per share, in what was referred to as another first for the company in the Nigerian market.