MTN Rwanda posts strong half year results and looks to continue expansion of connectivity and digital financial services

The company has continued its journey of accelerated progress shown over the last three years. This is despite global and local inflationary pressure, resulting from the Ukraine-Russia war, which has placed strain in supply chain globally and resulted in an increase in commodity and fuel prices.

In the first half 2022 (H1), total company revenue increased by 20.4% compared to the same period last year. H1 saw MTN Rwanda increase its customer base by 1.7% year-on-year (YoY) to 6.6 million, growing its leadership in customer market share by 2.7 percentage points (pp) to 65.6%. Active data and mobile money subscribers also grew by 23.9% and 9.1% respectively.

Commenting on this business growth, Chief Executive Officer of MTN Rwanda, Mitwa Ng’ambi said “we are pleased to present our half year results to our shareholders. We have continued diligent execution of our Ambition 2025 strategy which has yielded these positive results. Leading in connectivity, has been of great focus for us in the first half of the year, where we invested Rwf 28.8 billion in technology, including the roll out of 57 new sites across the country. Transformation of our distribution greatly to the commercial momentum that the business has experienced. Voice, data and mobile money have performed particularly well and our engagement in various Environment social and Governance initiatives has further cemented our commitment to the communities serve”

MTN Rwanda’s key revenue streams, voice, data and fintech increased by 7.1%, 14.6% and 52.4% YoY respectively. The voice and data results are mainly attributed to a rise in strategic customer value management campaigns, increased active data subscribers and usage.

The company’s financial report is a consolidation of both MTN Rwanda and its subsidiary company, Mobile Money Rwanda Ltd (MMRL). In driving the company’s platform strategy, MMRL made encouraging strides in H1, growing the volume of transactions by 38.3% YoY. MMRL continues to drive growth in the mobile financial services sector with a focus on advanced services in line with the ambition 2025 strategy.

A sustainable approach to business growth has been the focus of MTN Rwanda Chief Finance Officer, Mark Nkurunziza who said “MTN Rwanda’s dual focus on top line revenue growth as well as cost efficiencies resulted in our Earrings before interest tax and depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) growing by 17.8% while our contribution to the community health insurance scheme increase in 4G uptake resulted in a higher data cost of sales, we are pleased to have closed the period with an EBITDA margin of 49.3%. this margin has grown by 8 percentage points over the last 3 years, and we’re encouraged by the strides we have made thus far”.

As part of its of its Environmental and corporate social Responsibility efforts; MTN Rwanda saw to the implementation of several initiatives in the first half of the year. The most notable being the introduction of solar power in the main data center, further advocacy for the adoption of green energy solutions by donating solar panels to 700 families through the cana challenge and with the annual staff community service initiative, 21 days of Yello care, conducted digital skills training for students at Agahozo Shalom Youth Village.

In the remainder of the year, the focus remains primarily on the expansion of connectivity for full population coverage in the near term and diversification of Mobile Money products to unlock new opportunities with a focus on advanced services. It also remains the company’s focus to drive for sodt efficiencies to sustain healthy margins and continue to invest in capacity to meet its commitments to customers and stakeholders alike.

As this was the time that Mitwa Ng’ambi would present results to the shareholder community following her appointment as CEO of MTN Cameroon, effective 1 September 2022, she concluded by saying, “it has been a great pleasure serving the people of Rwanda as CEO of MTN. I am immensely grateful to have worked with such an amazing team and also to have received great support from the Government of Rwanda. I would also like to thank the Board of Director and various stakeholders who have had a hand in our successor, Ms Bodibe and the entire MTN Rwanda team nothing but the best, as they continue to lead digital solutions for Rwanda’s progress”.