MTN South Africa grows service revenue and subscribers

MTN has released an update for the quarter ended 30 September 2024, revealing slight growth in revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) in South Africa.

MTN South Africa’s service revenue grew by 3.3% for the year-to-date to Q3 2024 compared to the same period last year.

MTN South Africa reported service revenue of R30.99 billion for the year to the third quarter of 2023, which grew to R32.02 billion in the same period this year.

EBITDA excluding once-off items — like gains from MTN’s tower sale — grew by 3% for the year to Q3 2024 from R13.87 billion during the same period in 2023, to R14.3 billion.

MTN South Africa also reported data, fintech, digital, enterprise, and wholesale revenue growth, although it didn’t provide monetary figures:

• Data revenue increased by 2.1%
• Fintech revenue increased by 61.8%
• Digital revenue increased by 13.6%
• Enterprise revenue increased by 12.3%
• Wholesale revenue increased by 0.1%

At the same time, outgoing voice revenue declined by 5.5%.

MTN South Africa noted a 6.6% increase in subscribers to 39.2 million for the year up to the end of Q3 2024, with net additions of 760,000 subscribers in Q3 2024, and 1.8 million for the year-to-date.

“Postpaid subscriber numbers grew by 2.7% to 4.2 million (excluding telemetry), and prepaid customers grew by 6.2% to 29.5 million,” it added.

Regarding the MTN Group’s performance, the company reported a decline in service revenue of 18.5% and an EBITDA decline of 35.0%.

Group service revenue declined from R156.3 billion for the reporting period in 2023 to R127.4 billion for the same period in 2024.

MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita noted that the group navigated a challenging macro environment and regulatory developments during the year’s first nine months.

However, he added that the MTN Group delivered a resilient operating performance.

“There was an encouraging deceleration in blended inflation and reduced currency volatility across our markets in Q3 2024 relative to the first two quarters of the year,” said Mupita.