MTN Nigeria, yesterday released its audited numbers for the 2024 financial year. There was decent increase in revenue, but losses worsened. 

FY 2024 numbers 

Total revenue for the year went up by 36% from N2.4 trillion in 2023 to N3.3 trillion in 2024. Voice and data accounted for the bulk of revenue. 

Voice data came in at N1.3 trillion, up 14.5% from the previous year. In the earnings release, the company attributed the growth to higher usage and an expanding user base. 

Data revenue came in at N1.5 trillion, up 49.1% from the previous year. The growth was due to a higher user base and data usage. 

The company also gave a bit of colour on this in the earnings release. 

We experienced continued growth in data traffic, which was supported by an increase in smartphone penetration and our ongoing investments in network infrastructure. Data traffic rose by 42.9% and the average data usage per subscriber grew by 33.6%, reaching 11.2GB (with a 37.9% increase to 13.2GB in Q4). 

Smartphone penetration increased by 2.7pp to 58.2%, underpinning the rising demand for high-speed connectivity. Our 4G coverage now extends to 82.4% of the population, reflecting a 0.9pp growth, while 5G coverage expanded to 12.7%, an increase of 1.5pp.

Loss after tax worsened from N137 billion in 2023 to N400.4 billion in 2024.

Q4 2024 numbers 

Q4 2024 numbers had the telco turning a green corner (meaning returning back to profit) and making near history. Near history because revenue was nearly N1 trillion. Very few companies on the NGX generate a N1 trillion in revenue every quarter (that is every 3 months).

• Total revenue came in at 42.3% from N695 billion in 2023 to N990 trillion in 2024.
• Voice revenue was N352 billion, up 16.4% from the N302 billion it made in Q4 2023
• Data revenue was N452 billion, up 41.5% from the N319 billion it made in  Q4 2023

Q4 2024 profit after tax was N114 billion, as against the N122 billion loss recorded in the same period in 2023

How are investors reacting?

Investors seem unimpressed as the stock is currently down in today’s trading session on the NGX, Year to date, the stock is up 32.1%, outperforming the NGX All Share Index.