MTN Group revenue dropped 18.5% to 127.37 billion rands in 2024, hit by the weakening naira.
Despite this, MTN Nigeria returned to profit in Q3 after a series of losses.
In the first nine months of 2024, MTN Group’s service revenue dropped by 18.5%, falling to 127.37 billion rands from 156.29 billion rands in the same period of 2023.
This decline was mainly due to the significant depreciation of the Nigerian naira.
MTN’s group president and CEO, Ralph Mupita, highlighted that the naira’s weakening had a substantial impact on the company’s reported results.
He explained that, despite a challenging macroeconomic environment and regulatory changes, MTN managed to deliver a resilient performance.
Specifically, the naira closed at ₦1,541 to the dollar in September 2024, down from ₦907 in December 2023.
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However, the third quarter showed less volatility, with the rand strengthening to 17.22 to the dollar, compared to 18.27 in December 2023.
In addition, other currencies, such as the Ghanaian cedi, weakened, dropping 19.5% against the US dollar. On the other hand, the Ugandan shilling strengthened by 2.4%.
Although MTN had not released its full financial results, its first-half performance showed a loss of 7.39 billion rand ($414.7 million), the first loss since 2016, largely due to the naira devaluation.
This contrasted with a profit of 4.14 billion rand in 2023.
Nevertheless, there was some improvement in MTN Nigeria’s performance, with the company reporting a profit of ₦4.13 billion in Q3 2024 after three consecutive quarters of loss.
However, for the nine months ending September 2024, MTN Nigeria posted a significant loss of ₦514.93 billion.
