MTN Ghana has recorded a crucial financial performance in the 2024 fiscal year, with service revenue surging by 34.5% to GHS 17.9 billion ($1.1 billion), surpassing its medium-term targets. The company’s strong growth was driven by substantial increases in data and mobile money (MoMo) revenues, despite macroeconomic challenges and a slight decline in voice revenue.
A key driver of this performance was data revenue, which soared by 53.8% year-on-year to GHS 9.0 billion ($581 million). This growth was attributed to a 13.7% rise in active data subscribers, reaching 17.5 million, and a 19.0% increase in average megabytes consumed per user. As a result, data revenue now accounts for 50.2% of MTN Ghana’s total service revenue, up from 43.9% in 2023.
MoMo services also contributed significantly to the company’s success, with revenue from the segment increasing by 54.4% to GHS 4.4 billion ($284 million). This was driven by a 12.8% growth in active users, reaching 17.2 million, and an 82.8% year-on-year surge in advanced services such as digital payments and lending. MoMo’s share of total service revenue rose to 24.9%, compared to 21.7% in the previous year.
Conversely, voice revenue experienced a slight decline of 0.9%, settling at GHS 3.5 billion ($225 million). While overall call usage grew by 13.5%, the shift towards voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) services led to a decrease in voice revenue’s contribution to total service revenue, which fell from 26.8% in 2023 to 19.7% in 2024.
MTN Ghana’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 31.3% to GHS 10.2 billion, though the EBITDA margin fell by 1.4 percentage points to 57.1%. This decline was attributed to macroeconomic pressures and base effects from a management fee adjustment in 2023.
Despite a 59.7% rise in direct tax charges to GHS 2.6 billion ($167 million), the company’s profit after tax grew by 26.3% to GHS 5.0 billion ($322 million). MTN Ghana reaffirmed its position as a key fiscal contributor, paying a total of GHS 8.6 billion ($555 million) in direct and indirect taxes, along with GHS 468.4 million in regulatory fees and levies—amounting to 50.3% of total revenue.
ALSO READ: BAYOBAB, INFOBIP TO IMPROVE ON SMS CONNECTIVITY IN AFRICA
However, in contrast to MTN Ghana’s robust performance, MTN Group reported a loss after tax of ₦400.4 billion ($267 million) for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024. The loss was attributed to severe foreign exchange challenges, particularly in Nigeria, where the devaluation of the naira significantly impacted earnings. This underscores the varying economic conditions affecting MTN’s operations across different African markets.
In the first half of 2024, MTN Ghana posted a 31.2% year-on-year increase in service revenue to GHS 8.1 billion ($522 million), supported by subscriber growth. The company’s mobile subscribers rose to 28.4 million, with an additional 0.6 million customers added in the first quarter. Active data subscribers increased to 16.4 million, while MoMo users grew by 16.2% to 16.5 million.
During this period, revenue from MoMo services climbed by 44.8%, while digital revenue surged by 59.4%, fueled by demand for video, gaming, and ring-back tones. MTN Ghana also invested GHS 2.8 billion ($180 million) to enhance network quality, coverage, capacity, and IT systems.
