May 03, (THEWILL) – Subscribers of MTN Nigeria Communications PLC, paid nothing less than N31.62 billion as Value Added Tax (VAT) on calls and data consumed in the first quarter of 2021. According to information contained in the firm’s Q1 2022 report released to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) on Friday.
The figure is based on the N421.49 billion the telecoms firm made from calls and data in the first three months of 2022, for which a statutory 7.5 percent consumption/transaction tax is imposed as VAT and deductible at source.
The firm further reported that the N421.49 billion it earned from calls and data in the three months of 2022 represents a 20.32 percent increase from N350.31 billion it realised from voice and data in the corresponding period of 2021.
This suggests that MTN subscribers coughed out not less than N26.28 billion as VAT, representing 7.5 percent of the N350.31 billion it made from calls and data in the corresponding period of 2021.
This reflects 20.3 percent difference – less than the N31.62 billion paid in Q1 2022
According to the firm, its subscribers declined by 1.3 million to 70.2 million year-on-year because of regulatory restrictions on new SIM sales and activations. It added that its active data users increased to 35.9 million year-on-year, while its fintech subscribers rose to 10.7 million.
Speaking on the results, MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, said, “We continued to make good progress in the first quarter, building on the momentum we achieved in Q4 2021 and delivering several key milestones as we grow our connectivity business and platforms.
“This was achieved against a backdrop of significant geopolitical volatility exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. This conflict has significantly impacted energy prices, broader inflation, supply chains, and consumer spending.”
According to him, the number of retail investors in MTN was 139,000 after 126,720 investors became shareholders in the company’s first phase of a series of transactions to increase local ownership.
He added that the final approval for its MoMo Payment Service Bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria would enable the firm to offer financial services and drive financial inclusion in the nation.
Toriola stated that the firm now had 166,000 active MoMo agents. He said, “Although our mobile subscriber base declined by 1.9 percent YoY from 71.5 million in March 2021 to 70.2 million, we sustained the growth trajectory from Q4 2021 as we ramp up capacity for SIM registration and NIN enrollment.
“As a result, we added 1.7 million subscribers in Q1 2022. In addition, active data subscribers rose by 10.5 percent YoY to 35.9 million, with 1.6 million added in Q1 as we continued to drive data conversion from our new and existing subscriber base.
“To enable the growth in subscribers and traffic, we continued to enhance the capacity of our network. In doing so, we frontloaded our capital expenditure (capex) plan for the year, deploying capex of N162.5bn in the period to accommodate the sustained demand for data and accelerate the rollout of our 4G network, which now covers approximately 72 percent of the population and accounts for 76 per cent of data traffic.”
He added that about 60 million MTN subscribers had submitted their NINs.
Meanwhile, the firm approved a dividend payment of N174.53bn, translating to N8.57 kobo per every 2 kobo ordinary share to its shareholders.
MTN Nigeria Communications Plc was listed on the Premium Board of the NGX, by introduction, 20.35 billion ordinary shares on May 16, 2019, at N90 per share. Following the successful listing, MTN Nigeria became the first Mobile Network Operator to be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
