MTN Uganda posts 20pc profit for 2022 boosted by mobile transfers
Tuesday March 07 2023
MTN Customer care staff attend to Data and bundles clients during an MTN EXPO in 2018. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NMG
MTN Uganda, the country’s largest telecom company, posted a 20 percent rise in pre-tax profit for the full year 2022, boosted by financial technology and data services.
The telco’s biggest fintech products are mobile money services that allow clients to transfer and receive cash, pay for products and conduct other commercial transactions.
Majority-owned by South Africa’s MTN Group, the company listed on Uganda’s stock exchange in December 2021, although its initial public offering was undersubscribed.
An MTN stand at an expo. PHOTO | FILE | NMG
MTN Uganda CEO Sylvia Mulinge, said fintech and data service sales led a rise in pre-tax profit to Ush591 billion ($160 million) from Ush491 billion ($132 billion) in 2021.
Fintech and data service revenues both increased by roughly a quarter.
“On the fintech growth, we have continued to grow rapidly, reaching new milestones in product rollout and merchant partnerships,” Ms Mulinge said.
Read: MTN suffers 13pc profit dip as operating costs surge
MTN Uganda, which has a subscriber base of 17.2 million, chiefly competes with a unit of India’s Bharti Airtel.
It proposed a dividend of Ush5.5 per share ($0.0015 per share), which would bring the total dividend for 2022 to Ush15.9 per share ($0.0043 per share). In 2021, it paid Ush15 per share ($0.004 per share).