MTN Nigeria Revenue Plunges By 6% Over Uncompetitive Pricing

South Africa’s telecommunications giant, MTN has reported that the organic revenue of its Nigerian subsidiary was down 6 per cent year-on-year (YoY) due to uncompetitive pricing arising from the suspension of regulatory services.

In a SENS statement to shareholders, on Wednesday, May 25, the telco said MTN Nigeria revenue was impacted by subscriber disconnections and an increase in promotional minutes to encourage subscribers to complete their SIM registration details.

Despite the decline, MTN Nigeria’s organic data revenue data traffic leaped by 27 per cent YoY, supported by improvements to data network and lifting of regulatory services at the end of March 2016.

MTN Nigeria was originally slammed with a $5.2 billion (N1.04 trillion) fine in October 2015 after it failed to meet a deadline to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards on its Nigerian network. The penalty was later dropped by 25 per cent to $3.9 billion, but the telco remains in drawn out negotiations with authorities to further reduce it.

Ahead of its 21st Annual General Meeting (AGM) which held yesterday MTN said its Nigerian operation reported 7 per cent decline in subscribers from January to April 2016 even as mobile operator continue to negotiate with the federal government over the N780 billion fine.