MTN Nigeria Hits N1 Trillion Revenue Landmark, Launches Smart Feature Phone

Despite its tussle with CBN, leading Nigerian telco, MTN Nigeria, ended its 2018 on a high note. Figures from its 2018 full year investor presentation shows that the company made a revenue of N1.03 trillion in 2018.

This indicates a 17.1% year on year increase from N887 billion in 2017 and accounts for 28.2% of revenue made by the entire MTN group.

MTN Nigeria is beasting. I think it just became the first Nigerian company to hit the trillion Naira revenue mark. N1.04 trillion revenues on the back of 17% growth (v 1.9% GDP growth). Historic stuff

— Akin Oyebode (@AO1379) March 7, 2019

This revenue growth is owing to Data and Voice growth in the country. Data revenue went up 40.1 % from 2017 with data traffic increasing by 56.3%. Voice revenue also rose by 18.7%.

And with its plans to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) during the first half of 2019, MTN Nigeria could become the first trillion Naira firm on the NSE. 

Growth in Other Areas

The telco also continues to show its dominance in the Nigerian telco space as it added another 5.9 million subscribers to round off 2018 with 58.1 million subscribers, indicating 11.3% increase from 52.2 million in 2017. This indicates that the telco controls 50.4% of the Nigerian telco market.

Data is MTN’s core medium term growth driver- Rob Shuter, MTN chief executive

— Dineo (@Dineo9) March 7, 2019

MTN Nigeria hence accounts for about 25% of the group’s 232 million subscribers. The highest of all its markets.

MTN Nigeria also recorded a total of 43.9 million data subscribers, an increase of about 4.5 million from the same time in 2017. The company also had an estimated 21.6 million smartphone users on its network.

MTN Launches its Smart Feature Phones 

As announced in 2018, MTN Group has launched its smart feature phones in its South African and Nigerian markets. The phone, MTN Smart T, is a feature phone with smartphone capabilities as well as KaiOS 2.5. It retails for about N8,000 ($22).

According to research by the GSMA, the $100+ price tag of a smartphone is preventing about 64% of people in Africa from upgrading their phones to 3G/4G devices that can access the internet. There is therefore the need for a phone like Smart T to cater to this population.

MTN Smart T is also projected to help the telco dominate mobile phones in Africa.

MTN Group has finally launched the MTN Smart T, an ₦8,000 smart feature phone that can use WhatsApp, Google Assistant and other… – https://t.co/uMLQjdwvPJ pic.twitter.com/BBtiDlhdDY

— NetworkOfNewsNigeria (@NofNews_Nigeria) March 7, 2019

The phone supports applications like Google voice services, WhatsApp, Facebook, Google Maps as well as KaiOS app store. It is a dual SIM phone with 1.3 MP back and selfie cameras, 2000mAh battery capacity and it supports WiFi connectivity.