Month: August 2020

MTN is adding its voice to global efforts to raise awareness about the importance of wearing masks to fight the spread of COVID-19 with today’s launch of the #WearItForMe campaign across its markets.

As society navigates the “new normal” brought about by the pandemic, wearing face coverings remains one of the most effective measures to slow its spread. However, many people refuse to wear them, wear them incorrectly, or still underestimate their importance.

COVID-19 has had profound health and socioeconomic impacts across the world. We empathise and mourn the lives lost to the pandemic. And even though the outbreak appears to be slowing in Africa, now is not the time to be complacent,” says MTN’s incoming group president and CEO Ralph Mupita.

“With increasing evidence that masks can limit the spread of COVID-19, and eventually eliminate the disease if worn by 80-90% of the population, we need to do what we can to make a meaningful difference. Wearing a mask is not only about protecting oneself, but about respecting and protecting others,” says Mupita.

To help drive this behaviour, MTN is committing its September 2020 marketing resources to encourage everyone to do more to save lives. #WearItForMe is the second phase of MTN’s Y’ello Hope COVID-19 response initiative. It is a powerful call-to-action using the voices of some of the most influential people in our communities: mothers and mother-figures. They will send heartfelt messages to all the children of Africa to wear a mask and “wear it for me’’.

The campaign will build on MTN’s work carried out under Y’ello Hope to brighten lives and limit the impact of the pandemic, including through providing free data lifelines, zero-rated access to educational sites and using technology for contact tracing and information dissemination through the Africa COVID Communications and Information Platform.

Wearing a mask is, of course, not the only thing we all need to do to slow the spread of the virus: regular handwashing and strict social distancing are just as important,” concludes Mupita.

#WearItForMe will run throughout September. Visit www.wearitfor.me to send a message to someone to encourage them to do the right thing. #WearItForMe: Because when we all wear masks, we protect each other.

MTN Group today announced that the current group CFO of MTN Group, Ralph Mupita, has been appointed as the new group president and CEO with effect from 1 September 2020. Ralph has served as the MTN Group CFO since April 2017 and has played a critical role in the development and execution of the group’s strategy, capital allocation processes, financial performance as well as in the resolution of a number of complex regulatory matters.

MTN Group chairman Mr Mcebisi Jonas said: “After a rigorous and extensive search process, we are pleased to have appointed someone of Ralph’s calibre, experience and ability to fill the group president and CEO position. Ralph’s experience as the group CFO, strong knowledge of our businesses and markets, as well as successful background in financial services, M&A and emerging markets, place him in an excellent position to lead the growth and sustainability of the business going forward.”

Ralph is a graduate of the University of Cape Town with a degree in Engineering and an MBA. Prior to joining MTN Group, Ralph was the CEO of Old Mutual Emerging Markets for five years, a business that provided financial services to individuals and corporates across 19 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia, managing over R1 trillion of customer assets under management at the time.

Commenting on his appointment, Ralph said: “Leading a business with MTN Group’s history, scale and socio-economic impact is a privilege and honour, and I look forward to working with the group board and executive committee in driving growth and unlocking value for shareholders and broader stakeholders.”

“MTN Group is well positioned to take advantage of the digital acceleration shifts and opportunities across our markets, and we are well placed to play an important and leading role in digital and financial inclusion of the African continent, working with our stakeholders and partners.

The current group president and CEO, Rob Shuter, will step down from his executive responsibilities on 31 August 2020 and will thereafter support Ralph as required until the end of his fixed-term contract early next year.

An update regarding the GCFO position will be made on or before 1 September 2020.

MTN Group and MTN Irancell said on 10 August that there were no immediate plans for the exit of MTN from Iran and the 51.7 million customers in the republic could rely on continuing to receive the great service they have come to expect from the operator.

MTN Group, which is headquartered in South Africa, announced last week that its board of directors had decided that MTN would be best served in the future by focusing on its pan-African strategy.

As a result, it would look to dispose of its operations in the Middle East in an orderly manner over the medium term, which is over the next three to five years.

The group is in advanced talks to divest of its stake in MTN Syria. Next, it will look to reach agreement to dispose of its operations in Afghanistan and Yemen.

The close collaboration between MTN Group and MTN Irancell – in which the group has a minority 49% investment shareholding – will continue as it is, and business will be run as usual.  We would also like to assure all our stakeholders of our best attention.

MTN Group today reported encouraging results for the first half of 2020, navigating well through the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19.

MTN reported service revenue growth of 9,4% to R80 billion and EBITDA growth of 10,9% to R42 billion as efficiency initiatives saw its profit margins continue to improve. Headline earnings per share after non-operational impacts grew by 54%, operating free cash flow increased by 117,8% and ROE improved further to 14,1%.

“MTN’s first half performance affirmed the resilience of our people and business model as we delivered strong results against the backdrop of unprecedented socio- and macroeconomic uncertainty and challenges,” said MTN Group president and chief executive officer Rob Shuter.

“As we navigate the pandemic and its effects, we have prioritised looking after our people, customers and networks while focusing on efficiencies,” he said, adding that work-from-home programmes continue for MTN staff; Y’ello Hope Packages are helping ease customers’ financial pressures; and MTN’s support for various other initiatives aims to limit the impact of COVID-19 on society.

MTN also announced it was focusing its strategy in future on the African markets: “As part of our ongoing portfolio review, we believe the group is best served to focus in the future on our pan-African strategy. We will therefore be exiting the Middle East in an orderly manner over the medium term. As a first step we are in advanced discussions to sell our 75% stake in MTN Syria,said Shuter.

Inspired by the group’s belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life, MTN added 11 million subscribers in the first six months of the year to reach a total base of 262 million. By end June 2020, MTN had 102 million active data users and 38 million active Mobile Money users.

Despite lockdown restrictions impacting network rollout, MTN Group invested R10 billion in capital expenditure across our markets and brought a further 54 million people into 3G and 4G coverage. The focus on affordability of data saw the average rate per megabyte reduced by 34%.

The group made progress on the asset realisation programme, concluding the disposal of the tower company investments in Ghana and Uganda for R8,8 billion.

MTN did not declare an interim dividend given the continued uncertain impact of COVID-19 on the operating environment but will consider a final dividend should conditions warrant.

While we expect the remainder of the year to be shaped by the ongoing challenges presented by the pandemic, we believe that MTN will remain comparatively resilient and is poised to sustain its growth over the medium term,” said Shuter.

MTN is extending its digital strategy with the launch of a new pan-African API marketplace called Chenosis that will enable developers and businesses to discover and subscribe to what will become the largest library of open APIs published on the continent.

Chenosis will enable developers to tap into a broad spectrum of API products and services from across the continent, ranging from telecommunications, e-health, e-government, IoT, fintech, e-commerce, identity and authentication, payments and collections, location and more, from a single marketplace.

“Chenosis is a separate brand and entity, and will have an arms-length relationship with MTN so that it remains open to all mobile network operators, fintech start-ups, payment service providers, mobile wallet operators, financial service providers, and more,” says Charles Molapisi, MTN Group Chief Technology and Information Officer.

The Chenosis Marketplace allows businesses and developers to publish their APIs so that other developers can discover and consume them. The marketplace also provides the tools for publishers to monetise and promote their APIs, by creating subscription plans and product bundles that developers and businesses can purchase. The Chenosis Marketplace portal has dashboards for publishers and consumers to track revenue and credit balances, view consumption analytics and API performance and lots more.

The power of the platform will be in the creation of mashup APIs which will connect cross-industry APIs and facilitate innovation and the ability to build new services and new business models. Mashups are new product and service orchestrations created by developers from two or more existing APIs.

“We have exciting pan-African and international partnerships lined up to publish and monetize their APIs in the marketplace over the coming months,” says Molapisi. “These partnerships will enable Chenosis to become the largest and most diverse developer ecosystem on the African continent.”

“This is one of the ways in which MTN is investing in the emergence of an open African API ecosystem that is powered by African ingenuity and innovation,” he adds.

The Chenosis Marketplace will be open to the public from 10th August 2020. Developers can get started by exploring the Chenosis Marketplace at www.Chenosis.io