With a cumulative 111 million subscriptions, the duo of MTN and Airtel Nigeria raked in a total of N787.9 billion in the first six months of the year, New Telegraph has learnt.

The revenue was generated mainly from voice and data subscriptions on the two networks.

MTN with 65.2 million mobile subscriptions as at June, generated N566.9 billion revenue in the six months period, while Airtel, which is currently the third largest operator in the country with 45.9 million subscriptions raked in N221 billion.

The revenue figures were based on interim results released by MTN Group and Airtel Africa.

With improved bottom-line, the two mobile network operators contributed significantly to lift their respective group’s financial performance.

MTN Group, in its half year result released yesterday, said its Nigeria operation helped its revenue growth to R72.5 billion (N1.8 trillion). MTN Nigeria accounted for 30.7 per cent of the Group’s total revenue.

Airtel Nigeria also boosted Airtel Africa’s performance, leading to remarkable growths in its Q4 (January to March 2019) and Q1 (April to June 2019) results. According to the Group’s result, revenue in Nigeria increased by 22.2 per cent, broadly in line with constant currency growth as a result of a stable foreign exchange environment in the country.

MTN Group said its service revenue increased by 9.7 per cent in constant currency terms, noting that this was led by growth of 12.2 per cent recorded by MTN Nigeria.

In its analysis of the Nigeria operation, the Group noted that MTN Nigeria delivered a solid performance, with 11.4 per cent growth in voice revenue and 31.8 per cent growth in data revenue driving double-digit service revenue growth and further improving the EBITDA margin. “Voice revenue growth was supported by 5.7 per cent increase in subscribers, relatively stable tariffs and our focus on pro-consumer activities. This was boosted by our targeted customer value management (CVM) initiatives. “Data revenue growth was driven by an increased number of smartphones on the network, greater data usage and growth in the number of active data users. We added 2.5 million smartphones, increasing smartphone penetration by 2.1 per cent to 392 per cent,” the Group stated.

Across operations, the Group said its data revenue expanded by 19.8 per cent, supported by healthy growth in active data users to 82 million as it improved the coverage and quality of its data networks.

“Across our markets, we increased 3G and 4G population coverage by 24.4 million and 32.5 million people respectively. The effective rate per megabyte across our markets declined by 26.1 per cent, with average usage up 24.6 per cent at 2.7GB per month,” the telco stated.

Commenting on the results, MTN Group President and CEO, Rob Shutter, said: “We had a good first half, reporting solid financial results, good commercial momentum and encouraging strategic progress. We saw growth of 12 per cent in adjusted headline earnings per share, which is the first time that we have delivered growth in this measure in recent years. Our service revenue grew just below 10 per cent and EBITDA just above 10 per cent, both on a constant currency basis. And, as we grew revenue and carefully managed our investment programme, we saw capex intensity drop further to 16.9 per cent.

“Commercially, we had strong subscriber growth of 7.7 million in the first six months of the year to reach a total of 240 million subscribers. The number of active data users grew by 3.5 million to 82 million and our 30-day active Mobile Money users grew by 2.4 million to 30 million,” Shutter added.

Meanwhile, the Group said it has raised 2.1 billion rand ($140.24 million) from asset sales in the first half of this year as part of a divestment plan to simplify its portfolio.

Shutter told reporters in a post-earnings conference call yesterday in Johannesburg that the firm’s three years plan to reposition the firm was on track.

MTN is in the middle of reviewing its presence in some markets alongside investments in e-commerce platforms as part of a plan to streamline the company into a focused operator in high-growth markets in the Middle East and Africa.

In March, it announced a 15 billion rand divestment programme over the next three years that will also reduce risk and improve returns.

The firm had said in a statement that in the first half of the year, it sold its shareholder loan in ATC Ghana to American Tower Corporation for 900 million rand. It also sold its interests in investment fund Amadeus and its associated holding in Travelstart for 1.2 billion rand.

Airtel Africa in its report for the first quarter ended June 30, 2019 reported 9.3 per cent growth in its customer base to 99.7 million.

The report submitted to the Nigeria Stock Exchange showed that the Group’s revenue increased to $795.9 million, up 6.9 per cent, with constant currency growth of 10.2 per cent.

Similarly, revenue growth of 10.2 per cent in constant currency was driven by double-digit growth in Nigeria and East Africa, although this was partially offset by a decline in revenue in the rest of Africa where the company operates.

Growth was equally recorded across business products as constant currency revenue in voice increased by 3.2 per cent, data revenue by 35.9 per cent and mobile money by 41.8 per cent.

Airtel Africa was recently listed on the platform of the NSE amidst plans to expand operations and widen its customer base.