MTN Nigeria has seen strong growth in both FinTech subscribers and active data users for the year to end-December 2021.
The company reported today that active FinTech subscribers rose by 4.8 million to 9.4 million, while active data users increased by 1.7 million to 34.3 million.
FinTech revenue rose by 57.3% due to sustained growth in the use of Xtratime product and broader FinTech services by our customers.
“Our FinTech business continued to gain traction with approximately 770k registered mobile money (MoMo) agents and active users more than doubling to 9.4 million,” MTN Nigeria CEO, Karl Toriola, said.
“This provides a solid foundation on which to launch the MoMo Payment Service Bank (PSB), for which we have received an Approval in Principle. MoMo PSB will provide a powerful platform to drive digital and financial inclusion in Nigeria.
“In recognition of our progress in the FinTech space, we received a $500,000 grant from the African Development Bank to fund research on financial inclusion for women.”
Active data subscribers rose by 5.3% to 34.3 million as the telco continued to drive data conversion from existing subscriber base.
“To enable this, we significantly enhanced our connectivity infrastructure with the acquisition of an additional 800MHz spectrum and the accelerated rollout of our 4G network, which now covers more than 70% of the population,” said Toriola.
“Furthermore, we were successful in our bid to acquire a 100MHz spectrum licence in the 3.5GHz band, on which we will roll out 5G services, at the auction held in December 2021. 5G provides the foundation on which future network performance will be built. Our successful bid presents an exciting opportunity to be at the forefront of delivering technological advancements to as many Nigerians as possible.”
However, MTN Nigeria reported that mobile subscribers decreased by 8 million to 68.5 million.
MTN Nigeria attributed the drop in mobile subscribers to the regulatory restrictions on new SIM sales and activations.
“However, we are pleased to have returned to positive growth in Q4 2021, adding approximately 1 million subscribers as we continued to ramp up the alignment of our SIM registration and activation centres with the regulations,” said Toriola.
MTN Nigeria said it continues to actively support the Federal Government’s National Identity Number (NIN) enrollment programme, having deployed more than 2,300 points of enrolment across the country.
At the same time, MTN Nigeria continued to work with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to accelerate the bulk verification of NINs collected.
As of 31 December 2021, approximately 44 million subscribers have submitted their NINs, representing around 64% of our subscriber base and 74% of service revenue, said MTN Nigeria.
The current deadline for NIN verification is 31 March 2022.
“While an extension is solely in the hands of the authorities, we are working constructively with them and the industry, supporting the NIN enrolment drive, to ensure that customers are not unduly inconvenienced and service revenue for 2022 is not impacted.”
