MTN Ghana made GH¢7.5m daily in 2016

• Posted on March 16, 2017
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

-Paid GH¢713million in taxes 

FINANCIAL results of Mobile network operator MTN Ghana reveal that the company made GH¢7.5m daily as revenue in 2016.

MTN’s Total revenue rose to GH¢2.77 billion by December 2016 – an increase of 19.8% over the GH¢2.31 billion recorded in 2015.

The GH¢2.77billion revenue divided by 365 days in the year translates into GH¢7.5m (GH¢7,589,041) a day.

Data services contributed 42% of total revenue

The performance was strongly supported by its data services, which contributed 42% of total revenue.

The strong performance affirms MTN as the most profitable telephony operator in the country.

$143.7m investment in 2017

Speaking at the 2017 Stakeholder and Media Forum held at the company’s head office in Accra, Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Ebenezer Asante, said MTN Ghana would spend $143.7 million in capital expenditure (capex) for its business in 2017. 

According to the CEO, the company would invest this amount into the expansion and improvement of the network to provide subscribers with better quality of service.

“MTN Ghana will invest $143.7 in capex this year. We plan to roll out 197 LTE sites in 2017 in addition to the existing 475 sites to make 4G accessible in all regions,” Mr Asante noted.

Mr Asante added that MTN Ghana will also be improving its 3G and 2G networks to compliment the strides it is making in the 4G space.

“We [MTN Ghana] would also add 561 new sites to our 3G network and 345 new sites to the 2G network,” he stated.

It would be recalled that MTN Ghana, which is currently the largest telecoms company in Ghana, launched 4G LTE services in mid-2016, becoming the first and still the only voice telecoms provider offering 4G services in the country.

Data Revenue went up 65.7%

Mr Asante said data contributed immensely to MTN Ghana’s revenues. MTN’s data revenues went up by 65.7% year-on-year.

19.8% increase in revenue 

“Our revenues went up by 19.8% supported by a strong performance in data and voice usage. Total revenue went up to GH¢2.77 billion by December 2016 as against GH¢2.31 in December 2015. Data contributed some 42% of our total revenues,” the CEO disclosed.

MTN contributes 4.2% of govt total tax revenue

According to statistics from MTN Ghana, the telecoms company contributed 3.2% of government’s total revenues and 4.2% of its total tax revenue even though it lost about GH¢65 million due to the power crisis.

Scrap Stabilisation Levy

“We [MTN Ghana] contributed a total of GH¢713 million in tax payments in 2016 as against GH¢675.6 million in 2015. Even though major challenges still affect our business,” he said.

He prayed government would, among other things, abolish the Stabilisation Levy and also resolve the power situation and make it more stable.

By Raju J. R. PARWANI, Accra