Accra, Ghana//- Sustained investments made by MTN Ghana into its network infrastructure are paying off as the company is leading the country’s telecoms market comfortably.
It is the leader in voice, data, and Mobile Money (MoMo). According to the company’s 2022 annual report, MTN Ghana has increased its mobile subscribers by 12.8% to 28.6 million.
It means that 28.6 million subscribers are on the MTN network out of the over 30 million Ghanaian population.
The company’s 2020 annual report collaborated: “Our network improvements coupled with the increased adoption of data and digital helped to accelerate growth in our customer base.
The company’sactive data subscribers increased by 8.3% to 13.5 million in 2022, active Mobile Money (MoMo) users increased by 15.0% to 12.7 million in the same period.
While service revenue grew by 28.3% to GHS9.9 billion year-on-year (YoY), supported by good subscriber management amidst the national SIM re-registration programme, increased investment in the network and the diligent execution of commercial initiatives in voice, data, and MoMo services.
Network investments
“We added 3.3 million subscribers to our base and invested GHS2.1 billion in total capex to support the modernization of infrastructure, improve IT systems and expand network capacity and coverage across the nation”, the Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh explained in the annual report.
Indeed, since day one, Scancom Ltd (MTN Ghana) which was incorporated in 1994 as a private limited liability company but began operations in Ghana in 1996 has never put off its pedal on network investments.
MTN has always seen Ghana as a market to invest in because of the confidence it has in the governance and political stability, policy predictability and consistent economic growth over the years.
“This appetite has driven our investment decisions to invest over six billion US dollars in infrastructure since inception”, Mr Adadevoh said the launch of the company’s 25th anniversary celebrations.
From 2G to 3G, 4G and currently 4G+ technologies
MTN continues to consistently be the first to launch innovative products and services. MTN first introduced GSM technology in Ghana and was the first to commercially launch all the generations of technologies: 2G, 3G, and 4G LTE and 4G+.
As a risk-taker, the company invested in 3G technology at a time when 3G devices were not available in the country and if they were, they were not affordable.
Similarly, MTN Ghana invested in 4G technology by acquiring 4G 800MHz FDD spectrum license for $67.5 million in December 2015. But it deployment started in June 2016.
This innovative technology was described by industry experts as ‘transformational’.
4G LTE is five to 10 times faster than 3G. This means faster internet download and upload speeds. Overall, the data experience of MTN subscribers is improved significantly, according to senior officials of MTN Ghana.
Subsequently, the telecoms service provider upgraded the 4G service to 4G+service in March 2019 to provide faster data speeds with widest coverage for its customers irrespective of their locations.
The 4G+ service which runs on 4G LTE Advanced technology using the combination of the 800MHz and 2600MHz for carrier aggregation is an enhancement on the 4GLTE experience.
This provides more capacity and enhanced data speed of up to 20 times if migrating from 3G to 4G+ and five times if migrating from 4G to 4G+.
The company is confident that the 4G+ technology would further impact the development of the country as it provides more opportunities for Ghanaians to fully utilize digital services.
Additionally, it would also go to support the growth of the country in the areas of Artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and Big Data.
With faster internet and wider coverage, the transmission of data can be done with ease, on-the-go, with the best speed everywhere. Higher speed internet broadband promotes business growth and enriched social lives, ultimately boosting national development.
Smart capex strategy
Furthermore, the company continued to deploy its smart capital expenditure (capex) strategy, supporting significant improvement in coverage expansion and maintenance of the network, customer experience and quality of service (QoS) in a year of accelerated need for digitalization.
“To advance network experience and coverage, we rolled out 400 2G, 400 3G and 1,142 4G sites. We also modernized 820 existing 4G sites, increasing our 4G population coverage by 8.7pp YoY to 99.3%”, the CEO of MTN Ghana explained.
The telecoms giant’s smart capex deployment helped it to increase voice and data revenues during the 2022 period under review.
Mr Adadevoh noted: “Voice revenue accelerated in the fourth quarter due to portfolio adjustments made in the prior quarter. Our work on customer acquisition and customer value management enabled us to reconnect our customers through tailored offers and helped to drive a 24.5% YoY increase in voice revenue to GHS3.3 billion. The contribution of voice to total service revenue declined from 34.1% to 33.1%”.
Data revenue increased by 39.8% YoY to GHS3.9 billion. This was supported by various commercial interventions which helped drive growth in active data users (+8.3% YoY) and consequently increased traffic (+46.6% YoY) from our home and mobile subscribers”.
Data revenue contribution to total service revenue increased from 36.0% to 39.2% YoY, according to him.
MoMo revenue
For first time since its introduction in 2009, MoMo revenue suffered post the implementation of the e-levy in May 2022.
“We expanded the MoMo ecosystem by growing active MoMo merchants by 4.8% YoY and MoMo agents by 17.2% YoY. Active MoMo users increased by 15.0% YoY”.
MobileMoney Limited, the MTN Ghana mobile financial services subsidiary launched a MoMo Business app on the MTN network and continued to drive growth in MoMo advanced service offerings such as retail merchant payments, micro-loans, micro-insurance, and international remittances.
This supported an 11.6% YoY growth in MoMo revenue to GHS1.9 billion. The contribution of Mobile Money revenue to total service revenue decreased from 22.5% to 19.6% YoY.
Digital revenue
“Digital revenue declined by 18.8% YoY to GHS144 million due to a decrease in active digital subscribers (15.9% YoY), as a result of initiatives to enhance customer experience and rationalise our digital product portfolio.
We improved the music and gaming offerings with the launch of the Mdundo music service and refreshed Ayoba with a new gaming section that includes Subway Surfer which is expected to boost customer usage and experience. The contribution of digital to total service revenue decreased from 2.3% to 1.5% YoY”.
The technology world has been a fast-growing area but what caused the most revolutionary digitalization is the COVID-19 pandemic which was at its epic.
It has inadvertently compelled many people to latch onto the usage of digital devices.
Consumers of digital services
Consumers of digital services hardly think about how these services are provided and what infrastructure the telecommunications company needs to put in place to get the system running.
Financial and economic journalist and president of Journalists For Business Advocacy noted that digital transformation requires a lot of capital investment and a well thought out agile implementation approach.
Capital investment primarily forms the backbone of a robust network, and this can only be realized when the proper plan and capex is invested in it.
Modern connected world
As a company that believes everyone deserves the benefit of a modern connected world, MTN had already planned to modernize its network and provide solutions that simplify network management whilst delivering high performance long before the pandemic.
As a digital operator, MTN is in a state of perpetual innovation and the implementation of the network modernization strategy is tangible evidence of MTN’s commitment to lead the digital transformation agenda.
MTN assured that it would continue to execute on its Ambition 2025 strategy and maintain its investment commitment to drive continued growth.
The MTN Ghana Board maintained: “We will deepen our expense efficiency efforts and preserve liquidity as we navigate macroeconomic challenges. We give a medium-term guidance for service revenue growth in the low twenties (in percentage terms)”.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
