Africa’s largest telecommunications operator, MTN Group, has said it remained optimistic despite a significant decline in its group service revenue for the first half of 2024. The company reported a 20.8% drop to 85.3 billion rands, down from 107.7 billion rands in the same period last year.
“We remained optimistic about our underlying performance and growth prospects,” said MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita, while acknowledging the impact of external factors on the company’s performance, such as the devaluation of the naira and the conflict in Sudan that had the most significant impact on reported results..
Despite this, MTN’s service revenue from South Africa surpassed that of Nigeria, its largest market by revenue.
While MTN’s group service revenue excluding device and SIM card revenue increased by 12.1%, the company reported a headline loss of 256 cents per share. The board anticipates paying a minimum ordinary final dividend of 330 cents per share for the 2024 financial year.
Despite these challenges, the company reported strong results from MTN Ghana and MTN Uganda, and expects encouraging progress in key areas of its business in South Africa.