MTN Nigeria Plc has disclosed that it recorded N1.46 trillion in sales revenue for the first nine months of 2022.
Giving a breakdown of the revenue, the telecommunication company said it recorded N471 billion in the first quarter, N479 billion in the second, and N506 billion in the third, which adds up to N1.46 trillion turnover in three-quarters of operations in 2022.
This was contained in the interim financial report for the third quarter ended September 2022 released by the company, The Cable reports.
The revenue growth, the company said, marked a rebound in quarterly revenue numbers for the company after a slowdown in the second quarter from 22 percent growth in the first quarter to 18 percent and pushing back to 22 percent in the third quarter.
The company closed last year’s operations with turnover up by about 23 percent to N1.65 trillion. The renewed strength in the third quarter has brightened the prospects for a full-year turnover expectation in the region of N2 trillion for MTN Nigeria in 2022.
Data services continue to lead revenue growth for the third straight year, growing steadily from N163 billion in the first quarter to N185 billion in the second and N201 billion in the third quarter.
Revenue from voice services recovered from a slight decline in the second quarter to a 7 percent growth of over N209 billion for the third quarter. The share of data income in MTN’s total revenue has continued expanding from 34.5 percent in the first quarter to 38.7 percent in the second quarter and further to almost 40 percent in the third quarter.
The rising cost of funds remains a challenge for the company so far this year, rising by close to 35 percent in the third quarter to N55.7 billion for the quarter, beating the N50.6 billion finance cost in the second quarter.
Profit margin however keeps declining from quarter to quarter, as costs generally keep growing ahead of revenue. Net profit margin went down from 20.6 percent in the first quarter to 17.7 percent in the second and further to 17.3 percent in the third quarter.
Profit grew by 11.4 percent in the third quarter, about one-half of the 22 percent increase in turnover, reflecting major increases in the cost of finance and cost of starter packs, handsets, and accessories.
Data services provided over N549 billion or 37.7 percent of the company’s revenue from Q1 to Q3, improving from 36.6 percent at the half year. This is a marked growth of 50 percent over the corresponding figure of N366 billion in 2021.
MTN Nigeria closed the third quarter operations with an after-tax profit of N269 billion, which is an increase of 22.3 percent over the N220.3 billion profit it posted in the same period last year.
Net profit margin improved slightly from 18.3 percent in the same period last year to 18.5 percent at the end of September 2022, down however from 19.1 percent at the half year.
Two major cost increases account for the weakness in profit margin, which is finance expenses and the cost of starter packs, handsets, and accessories. The company paid N145.7 billion in finance expenses at the end of the third quarter, an increase of over 39 percent.
