MTN Nigeria's revenue increased by 17.1 percent to NGN 385.3 billion in the first quarter ended 31 March compared with NGN 328.2 billion in the same period in 2020. Net profit grew by 42.5 percent to NGN 73.7 billion from NGN 51.7 billion in 2020. EBITDA climbed by 19.1 percent to NGN 204.5 billion from NGN 171.8 billion in 2020 while the EBITDA margin expanded by 0.9 percentage points (pp) to 53.1 percent from 52.2 percent in 2020.
Mobile subscribers declined by 5 million to 71.5 million amid customer churn and regulatory restrictions on new SIM sales and activations. Active data users declined by 71,000 to 32.5 million. Capital expenditure in the quarter was NGN 89.9 billion, up 19.3 percent from NGN 75.3 billion in 2020 mainly due to site roll-outs, while free cash flow increased by 18.9 percent to NGN 114.7 billion. MTN's core capex excluding right of use assets was up 27.8 percent to NGN 31.6 billion.
