Accra, Ghana//-The Board Chairman of Scancom PLC (MTN Ghana), Dr Ishmael Yamson has attributed the impressive financial results recorded by the company in 2023 to the company’s demonstrable commitment to driving sustainable business growth in challenging times.
According to him: “MTN Ghana’s financial result in 2023 shows a robust performance with a strong total revenue growth of 34.6% compared to the previous”.
The growth was achieved through targeted business strategies that led to an increase in Voice, Data and Mobile Money (MoMo) revenues, Dr Yamson told shareholders at the leading telecom company’s 6th annual general meeting (AGM) held in Accra on Friday 22, March 2024.
He added: “As part of the company’s commitment to disciplined execution, the management team executed the expenses efficiency programme proactively to control costs, maintain profitability and ensure business growth”.
As a result, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by an outstanding 40.2% year-on-year (YoY), and the EBITDA margin also increased by 2.3 percentage points from 56.1% in 2022 to 58.4%.
Profit after tax grew by 39.4%YoY, and earnings per share increased by 29.5% YoY. These impressive results demonstrate the company’s commitment to driving sustainable business growth in challenging times”.
Explaining the performance to the shareholders, Selorm Adadevoh, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana who has been promoted to the MTN Group in South Africa, said the company’s Service revenue grew by 34.6% YoY, with significant contributions from Voice, Data, and MoMo revenue.
He attributed the growth to well-executed commercial strategies and their focused investment in maintaining high network quality, expanding coverage, and delivering a good experience to their customers as well as achieving progress in their pricing initiatives across the business.
“The national SIM re-registration exercise resulted in a 6.3% YoY decrease in our subscriber base. Despite the challenges presented and the potential implications on the business, our unwavering commitment to providing high-quality services to attract new customers and retain existing ones helped particularly mitigate the full impact of the national SIM re-registration exercise on the business”, Mr Adadevoh further explained.
Dr Yamson-led board because of the exceptional business performance, and the strength of the cashflow position and projects is comfortable recommending a final dividend payout of 17.5 pesewas per share to shareholders, subject to their approval.
If approved, the payment the board chairman noted would be made on 12th April 2024.
The total dividend for the 2023 financial year as stated in the company’s annual report 2023 would be 22.5 pesewas per share including the interim dividend of 5.0 pesewas per share paid on 8th September 2023.
The total dividend amount of GHC3.0 billion is equivalent to 74.8% of the company’s profit after tax (GHC4.0 billion) representing a 37.2% increase in dividend payout per share.
