MTN Rwanda delivered a strong improvement in its financial performance for the first quarter, driven by growth in its connectivity and fintech platform businesses.
The group reported profit after tax of Rwf 1.6-billion (about R20.67m) in the quarter ended March after a loss of Rwf 1.2-billion a year ago.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) improved by 10.3% to Rwf 26.7-billion, while the ebitda margin decreased by 1.2 percentage points to 38.9%.
The group reported subscriber growth of 2.8% to 7.6-million despite ongoing competitive pressures.
However, active data subscribers decreased by 8.2%, affected by aggressive bundles in the market offered by competitors.
MoMo monthly active users grew 2.5% to 5.3-million supported by the growth in mobile subscribers.
“We continued to implement various customer value management and pricing optimisation initiatives to drive user and revenue growth, particularly in data and MoMo,” CEO Monzer Ali said in a statement on Tuesday.
Despite a decrease in subscribers, data traffic grew 33.6% while delivering 12.2% year-on-year growth in data revenue as a result of the demand growth, supported by well-priced offers to customers.
MoMo revenues delivered strong growth of 28%, which was attributable to the robust expansion in advanced services revenue (up 44.2%). The contribution of advanced services to overall MoMo revenue increased to 29.4% from 26.1% a year ago, driven by the growth in merchant payments and remittance products. MoMo’s contribution to overall service revenue increased to 49.1% from 43% before.
“We delivered a strong improvement in our financial performance, driven by growth in both our connectivity and fintech platform businesses, with service revenue up by 12.3% year on year to Rwf 67.2-billion. This was underpinned by the double-digit growth in data and fintech revenue," Ali said.
“Looking ahead, our data and fintech businesses will remain key drivers of growth, promoting digital and financial inclusion as we continue to deliver digital solutions that support Rwanda’s progress. We remain committed to the execution of our Ambition 2025 strategy, with a strong focus on commercial expansion, cost control, and operational efficiency to drive sustainable growth,” he added.
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