MTN has reported service revenue strides to $335 million. Its fintech product, among other services such as data and voice, substantially contributed to this growth.
MTN Uganda has recorded a 15% jump in service revenue, reaching Ush 1,250 billion ($335 million), driven by strong voice, data, and fintech performance. This growth was reported during H1 2023, ending on June 30. Sylvia Mulinge, MTN Uganda CEO, noted that the 15.0% service revenue growth aligns with the company’s target, reflecting resilient voice performance, double-digit data, and fintech revenue growth. “Despite inflation, we managed costs effectively,” she stated.
Voice revenue increased by 9.4%, supported by customer base expansion. Net additions added 910,000 customers, reaching 18.1 million, driven by strategic gains. MTN Uganda further eased 2G congestion through customer migration to 3G, enhancing the customer experience. However, customer transition to new networks remains a challenge, unlike neighbouring Kenya where Airtel Kenya and Safaricom have already launched 5G services, with Airtel leading the pack.
MTN Uganda’s data revenue rose 22.1% to Ush 290.2 billion ($78 million), driven by 21.4% growth in active data subscribers, up to 6.9 million. Smartphone penetration grew to 35.7%, with 24.1% more smartphone users. Efforts to promote smartphone adoption included partnerships with TakeNow and supported by MTN Kabode smartphone sales.
MTN Pay Mpola Mpola offers smartphone instalment plans, while Kaboda smartphones provide affordable devices with internet access and data bundles. A similar product exists in Kenya through Safaricom’s Lipa Mdogo Mdogo program. Both aim to provide accessible smartphone choices. This replication is unsurprising, considering Mulinge served as Safaricom’s chief consumer business officer before leaving the company in October 2022 for MTN.
“On the commercial side, we ramped up efforts on smartphone adoption through partnerships with manufacturers and enhanced our device financing programme to address the affordability challenges. These initiatives drove a 24.1% growth in smartphone users and improved our smartphone penetration to 35.7% (+3.7pp),” added Mulinge.
MTN Uganda’s fintech revenue grew 18.6% to Ush 358.3 billion ($96 million). According to the data, fintech users reached 10.9 million customers (+11.6%), following advanced revenue sources, mainly in payments and international remittances. Customer uptake of MoMoPay drove merchant expansion to 267,000 (+223%), leading to a 26.3% jump in transaction volumes, up to 1.6 billion, and a 44.4% growth in transaction value to Ush 61.6 trillion. Agent numbers, however, decreased to 162k (-5.5%).
“Our efforts were directed towards digitalisation of our customer value chains to drive cashless payments with MoMo Pay and enhancements in our international remittances portfolio to support borderless payments in key trade markets. This has augured well for our advanced revenue contribution growing to 26.3% (+8.8pp) in line with our medium-term objectives,” Mulinge clarified.
These numbers showcase the importance of fintech services in MTN Uganda’s revenue targets. MTN offers similar products in other markets across the continent, and just the other day, Mastercard said it would purchase a minority stake In MTN Group’s fintech business. The purchase will focus on MoMo, a mobile money service, which has been valued at $ 5.2 billion.
