Sylvia Duruson
MTN Uganda has achieved strong growth in service revenue, reaching Ush 1.25 trillion ($335 million) in the first half of 2023. This 15% jump was driven by gains in voice, data, and fintech services, according to CEO Sylvia Mulinge. She noted that this aligns with the company’s targets and reflects resilient performance amidst inflationary pressures.
A key driver was voice revenue, which rose 9.4% to Ush 568 billion. This was aided by expanding the customer base by 910,000 to over 18 million. MTN eased network congestion by migrating customers to 3G and mproving experience. However, migrating customers to newer networks remains challenging, unlike in Kenya, where 5G services have launched.
Another factor was a 22% growth in data revenue to Ush 290 billion, stemming from 21% more active data users, now at 6.9 million. Smartphone penetration grew to 36%, with 24% more smartphone users. MTN promoted adoption through financing plans like TakeNow and its affordable Kaboda smartphones with data bundles. This replication of Safaricom’s Lipa Mdogo Mdogo is unsurprising, given Mulinge previously led consumer business there.
Fintech revenue rose 19% to Ush 358 billion, with 11% more Fintech users at 10.9 million. Growth came from payments and remittances. Uptake of MoMoPay expanded merchants by 223% to 267,000. This spurred a 26% increase in transaction volumes to 1.6 billion and 45% higher transaction value at Ush 62 trillion. However, agents fell 6% to 162,000.
Mulinge noted efforts to digitise customer value chains via MoMoPay and enhance remittances have driven the advanced revenue contribution up 8.8 percentage points to 26.3%, meeting medium-term goals.
These results showcase the importance of fintech services to MTN Uganda’s revenues.
