MTN Group announced on Monday that its Nigerian operation has attracted 12.2 million new customers in 2020.
The telco said it added 12.2 million new subscribers in the year to end-December to reach 76.5 million customers.
The company also said active data customers rose by 7.4 million to 32.6 million, supported by growth in gross connections and expanding its 4G network. Data traffic rose by 126.5% and average usage by 64%.
The company said it added 8.2 million new smartphones to its network, bringing its smartphone penetration to 45.9% versus 41.9% in 2019.
“Our performance demonstrates the strong operational and resilience in our business,” said Ferdi Moolman, MTN Nigeria’s CEO.
He added that the introduction of additional customer registration requirements and suspension of the sale and activation of new SIM’s towards the end of the year affected subscriber growth.
“We remain committed to ensuring our subscriber records are updated with the National Identity Number (NIN) and continue working closely with the government, supporting their efforts by expanding capacity to provide NIN enrolment services across our customer interaction touchpoints.”
On 9 December 2020, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) suspended the sale and activation of new SIMs. On 15 December 2020, directed all operators to update SIM registration records with valid NINs with an initial deadline of 30 December 2020. While the suspension of new subscriber acquisition continues, the NIN update deadline has been extended to 6 April 2021 to accommodate logistical challenges.
MTN Nigeria also proposed a final dividend of Naira 5.90 kobo per share.
The company’s mobile money businesses recorded a 269.2% increase in the number of registered agents to more than 395 000 and 4.7 million active subscribers versus 553 000 in 2019.
The company said its FinTech revenue rose by 27.3%, boosted by MTN Xtratime – its airtime lending service.
“Our FinTech subscribers increased by more than eight times to 4.7 million, driving higher transaction volumes of over 51.5 million during the year and core FinTech revenue growth of 28%,” said Moolman.
