<a>MTN registers growth in Uganda as it boasts 17.2 million subscribers</a>

Mobile telecoms operator MTN has registered massive growth in Uganda as it is the fourth-biggest market of Africa’s largest mobile operator.

BusinessTech Africa has discovered that MTN Uganda has grown its profits by almost a fifth in its 2022 year, benefiting from a network rollout as well as strong demand for its data and fintech services.

News24 Business has it that profit after tax rose 19.3% to 406.1 billion Ugandan shillings (about R2 billion), the company said on Monday.

MTN now boasts an increased mobile subscriber as they grew by 9.2% to 17.2 million, and fintech revenue grew almost a quarter.

“In 2022, we delivered solid results while navigating challenging macro conditions characterized by slow economic growth, a weaker shilling, rising inflation, and interest rate in the first three quarters of the year,” CEO Sylvia Mulinge said in the results.

“Our improved data performance and revamped device financing programme has further attracted an additional 1.4 million data customers to our network, increasing our smartphone penetration this year to 35% (up 4.2 percentage points).

“On the fintech front, we have continued to grow rapidly, reaching new milestones in product rollout and merchant partnerships thus further deepening digital and financial inclusion.”

According to the statement, active data subscribers also rose by more than a quarter to 6.7 million it said, while its 4G population coverage jumped 17.2 percentage points year on year to 79.9%.

Data traffic rose more than 40%, while the company said it Mobile Money platform gained significant traction, with its merchant numbers growing more than threefold to 173 000.

Mobile money is an electronic service that enables users to send and receive money, make payments, and perform other transactions using their mobile phones.

The company said it was supported by a customer transition to cashless payments, while its initiatives helped drive a 27.8% expansion in the number of transactions on its platform to 2.6 billion. Transaction value grew by 39.8%.

This comes after BTA reported that information coming through to BusinessTech Africa that Africa’s largest mobile telecoms operator, MTN, has reported growth in Rwanda.

Dubbed the continent’s largest mobile operator, MTN registered growth in its ninth-biggest market by subscribers.

The growth is recorded as more than a fifth for its year to end-December amid strong demand for its Mobile Money (MoMo) service, though it is still feeling the effects of 2021 licence renewal.