Abolaji Adebayo 
MTN Nigeria (MTNN), with its 79.4 million mobile subscribers, has reported a six fold loss of N519 billion after tax in the first half of the year.
The telecommunications firm reported a loss of ₦85 billion in H1’23, leading to 441.15 per cent increase in loss.
The loss for the sixmonth period is already roughly three times the loss it recorded for the whole of last year, thereby complicating an ordeal dating back to the period.
It was revealed that assets at the end of the period were worth N3.3 trillion, while liabilities stood at N3.9 trillion.
However, the company’s shareholders’ fund stayed in the red during the period as it did at the end of last year, standing at N577.7 billion.
It was learnt that Nigeria’s devaluation of naira led to a massive foreign exchange loss for the wireless carrier as the company posted a service revenue of N1.5 trillion and grew its subscriber base by 2.9 per cent from 79.4 million, while active data rose by 11.1 per cent to 45.6 million, its operations are being stifled by Nigeria’s economic condition.
The country devalued its currency by 31 per cent in January, the second time in eight months, as part of reforms aimed at unifying its official and unofficial exchange rates.
It led the net foreign exchange loss of MTNN up to N887.7 billion from N454.7 billion a year earlier after exchange rate pressures caused foreigncurrency obligations like borrowings, trade & other payables and lease liabilities to surge in naira terms.
Revenue climbed 32.8 per cent to N1.5 trillion driven by a sharp uptick in data income, which alone contributed 47.2 per cent of turnover.
The Chief Executive officer of the company, Karl Toriola explained: “Despite barring 8.6 million subscribers during H1, in line with the NCC directive, we managed to limit the decline in our base to 280k; resulting in a 2.9 per cent YoY increased in our customers to 79.4 million.
The higher general inflation impacted our cost profile and eroded earnings.” Loss before tax rose to N751.3 billion from N119.4 billion a year ago.
MTN Nigeria received a tax credit of N232.2 billion from tax authorities, helping it cut net loss to N519.1 billion.
