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Artificial intelligence (AI) is potentially the most powerful tool for inclusive growth in Africa, but the continent is in a race against time and must act with urgency to overcome the risk of further inequality and the creation a digital underclass. This is according to the continent’s largest mobile operator MTN Group.

“We must be obsessed and paranoid about not being left behind,” MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita told The Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation (KMF) Inclusive Growth Forum over the weekend.

He said Africa’s path to inclusive AI required speedy action on six fronts.

Firstly, AI needs more abundant electricity supplies to drive economic growth. The IEA has estimated that Africa’s energy and climate-related goals by 2030 require annual investments of more than US$200 billion. The International Monetary Fund has said that all data centres combined use as much power as some of the world’s largest economies, and data centre power demand may triple by 2030.

As Africa has less than 2% of global data centre capacity, Mupita said it needs to invest heavily in digital infrastructure, beyond investment in fibre and subsea cables. The International Telecommunication Union has said that Africa needs around US$96 billion until 2030 to plug the digital infrastructure capex gap.

Thirdly, Africa needs to speed up the development of its own large language models (LLM) to power AI-driven solutions for its 1.5 billion people. There are more than 2 000 distinct African languages and Mupita said that fewer than 2% of them are supported by mainstream LLMs.

He was building on comments he made in New York in September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, when he took up a call to action from Nigeria for MTN Group to support the collection of datasets of African languages, including funding academic research into the continent’s languages.  

This followed the launch of the Nigerian Atlas for Languages & AI at Scale (N-ATLAS) – an open-source multilingual LLM designed to understand and generate Nigeria’s diverse voices and create datasets for AI solutions.

Mupita told the KMF gathering that Africa must act with urgency to develop strong digital and AI skills. “This is an opportunity to enable Africa’s rich pipeline of youth, which will make up the world’s largest workforce by 2050,” he said, adding that by 2030, there would be an estimated 230 million digital jobs in sub-Saharan Africa.

“We must ensure that new jobs and augmented jobs are greater than the jobs lost, particularly with the youth divided that Africa will have.”

Calling AI a tool to solve Africa’s unique challenges, particular in high impact sectors, Mupita said Africa needed to combine traditional AI and generative AI for the greatest value across key use cases in key sectors such as healthcare, education and agriculture.

Finally, he said if Africa was to turn its ambition into reality and create – not merely consume – AI, partnerships were essential. “To give African AI initiatives scale and joint success, governments, the private sector and civil society must partner on policy, data governance and skills development. And we must do this without delay.”

A pioneer in transformation in South Africa, MTN Group and major subsidiary MTN South Africa (MTN SA) each maintained a Level 1 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) contributor status in 2024.

MTN’s annual B-BBEE compliance report, compiled by an independent verification agency, underscored our efforts to drive inclusive growth and empowerment through deliberate and targeted interventions in the year.

“Our commitment to transformation and focused execution has yielded measurable successes across several elements of the B-BBEE scorecard, including notable improvements in management control, skills development and preferential procurement,” said MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita.

“As a result of our recruitment and talent management strategies, we increased Black representation in management across all levels and enhanced female representation on the Board of Directors. This is part of our goal of achieving gender equity by 2030,” he added.

MTN SA CEO Charles Molapisi was pleased with the results: “At MTN South Africa, we see our Level 1 B-BBEE achievement not just as a milestone, but as a reaffirmation of our purpose to lead with impact. Transformation is deeply embedded in our DNA, it guides how we invest, how we empower, and how we connect South Africans to real opportunities. We are proud to be part of building a future where inclusive growth drives true progress, for all.”

Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment in 2024, MTN remained committed to creating an equitable environment for previously disadvantaged individuals through our skills development programmes. We invested in building STEM capabilities to help future-proof our graduates and employees, equipping them with the tools required for the digital economy. This was achieved through structured learning, on-the-job training and mentorship.

As a significant player in the sector, we recognise our responsibility to foster inclusive and sustainable economic growth, not just as a corporate entity, but as a catalyst for positive change. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in driving economic.

In a significant move to improve the user experience, MTN Group, Africa’s leading telecommunications service provider, has partnered with Meta to enhance the quality and reliability of voice and video calls on real-time calling applications such as WhatsApp across 12 MTN markets.

By optimising application-aware networks and network-aware applications, the initiative aims to deliver a more seamless, stable, and high-quality user experience. The collaboration aims to improve real-time calling experiences across 12 markets by pinpointing areas for enhancement and executing specific interventions.

Since MWC 2024, MTN and Meta teams have been collaborating to identify key areas for improvement and implement targeted network optimizations that enhance the interaction between mobile networks and real-time calling applications while maintaining efficient traffic delivery. By harnessing data analytics and conducting comprehensive testing, they have successfully created and deployed solutions that significantly enhance the quality of experience for mobile users.

The first market to implement these enhancements is Nigeria, where early results show notable improvements in key performance indicators (KPIs), including 50% improvement, leading to a better user experience for MTN Nigeria mobile users.

“This implementation further demonstrates our commitment to enhancing our customers’ digital experience. We’re pleased with the remarkable improvement in our real-time communication services, reflecting our commitment to innovative customer solutions,” said Yahaya Ibrahim, CTO at MTN Nigeria.

“The collaboration allows us to deploy advanced solutions for an unparalleled real-time experience in Nigeria and showcases our dedication to elevating service quality and improving user experience, while striving for continued efficiency in traffic delivery,” added Diego Marí, Head of Network Ecosystems Engineering at Meta.

MTN Group on Monday reported a solid underlying operational and financial performance for 2024 – and a particularly strong second half. This strong performance was affected by a sharp drop in the value of the currency of one of our largest markets, Nigeria; and impairments in conflict-hit Sudan

This meant that even though the Group’s service revenue and earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITDA) in constant-currency terms grew by around 14% and 10% respectively, they were negatively affected in reported rand terms.

In the year to 31 December 2024, service revenue of R178 billion was down by some 15% in reported terms, and reported EBITDA (before once-off items) of R60 billion was a third lower than it was in 2023. Basic earnings per share swung by 758 cents in 2024 to a loss of 531 cents.

Adjusted headline earnings per share (HEPS) decreased by 32% to 816 cents, impacted mainly by the sharp devaluation in the naira. With a relatively more stable naira in the second half of 2024 and stronger results from MTN South Africa, second half adjusted HEPS showed strong momentum.

The Board of Directors declared a dividend of 345 cents a share (up from 330 cents in 2023) as the Group reported strong commercial momentum and maintained its guidance over the medium term. The Board, further, anticipates paying a minimum ordinary dividend of 370cps for the 2025 financial year.

We serve 291 million subscribers in 16 markets and progressed key strategic priorities and sustained a healthy financial position as well as balance sheet flexibility in 2024.

“Alongside execution of our commercial strategies, our continued capital investment of R30 billion to strengthen the quality and capacity of our networks enabled us to capture the opportunities in data and fintech across our markets,” said Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita, adding that data traffic accelerated by a third, as data subscribers grew by 8% to 158 million active users.

The volume of fintech transactions on MTN’s networks rose by 15% to more than 20 billion valued at over US$320 billion, while the number of active Mobile Money (MoMo) users rose by just less than 1% to 63 million, slowed by initiatives in key fintech markets to enhance the quality, stickiness and profitability of our overall fintech ecosystem.

Data revenue decreased by 12% on a reported basis, but increased by almost 22% in constant-currency terms. Fintech revenue increased by 11% on a reported basis, but by almost 29% in constant currency. As part of our expense efficiency programme (EEP), we realised sustainable savings of R3.8 billion in 2024.

Performance was underpinned by adhering to disciplined capital allocation as well as expense efficiencies. We are well on track to achieve our EEP target of R7-8 billion between 2024 and 2026.

MTN South Africa sustained a resilient overall performance, with service revenue growth of 3.1% to R43.2 billion for the year, underpinned by improved network availability and commercial initiatives. In the latter part of the year, the business delivered some encouraging acceleration in key commercial metrics, with prepaid data revenue returning to growth from November.

MTN Group advanced the execution of our key strategic initiatives in the year. These included the signing of definitive agreements with Mastercard for a minority investment into the Group Fintech structure, as well as the disposal of MTN Afghanistan, MTN Guinea-Bissau and MTN Guinea-Conakry, which further enhanced the Group’s focus and risk profile.

In Nigeria, we renegotiated tower lease contracts, which allow MTN Nigeria to better manage adverse macroeconomic impacts on the business. In Ghana and Uganda, we increased local ownership in our operations. In South Africa, we extended the MTN Zakhele Futhi broad-based black economic empowerment transaction.

“This underscores our dedication to transformation and creating shared value and remains integral to our future success,” Mupita said of the Group that celebrated 30 years of operations in 2024.

Other shared value wins included further reductions in the Group’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions as well as widening access to broadband internet access to cover 93% of the population in our markets. Advancing broadband in rural and remote areas is critical to our work to extend digital and financial inclusion across Africa.

In terms of our economic value-added to the communities we serve, MTN contributed approximately R155 billion in the year, including around R206 million in corporate social investment programmes across our host nations.

Looking ahead, Mupita said although there remained some macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties in the near term, he was encouraged by trends in various indicators. These included inflation (which showed signs of abating in the second half of 2024), reduced forex volatility (particularly of the naira), as well as the tariff adjustments in Nigeria which we started to implement in February 2025. These prompted MTN Nigeria to re-instate its medium-term guidance.

“MTN Group is well positioned to capture the exciting opportunities in our markets and deliver on our medium-term objectives to sustain growth, create shared value in nation states and communities, and unlock value for our stakeholders,” he said.

SENS: https://irhosted.profiledata.co.za/mtngroup/2019_feeds/SensPopUp.aspx?id=507535

MTN Group’s commitment to shared value in Africa extends beyond providing essential connectivity. In 2023, our total tax contribution to governments across all markets increased by more than 12% to R61.7 billion. This figure encompasses the direct corporate taxes we pay, indirect taxes, operating licence fees, payroll taxes, property rates, dividend taxes and withholding taxes.

“Our total tax contribution is equivalent to the cost of building more than 500 high-quality schools,” notes MTN Group Chief Financial Officer Tsholo Molefe, adding that governments across our markets could use our total tax contribution (TTC) to invest in infrastructure, education, healthcare and a wide range of other public services.

“Our commitment to paying our fair share of taxes supports the positive relationships we have with governments and communities; it also promotes stability and predictability in the business environment,” said Molefe, adding: “This not only attracts foreign investment but also creates new job opportunities, further stimulating economic growth across the continent.”

To maintain transparency, MTN releases an annual Tax Report as part of its suite of reports. This year, we mark 30 years of connecting people and driving digital and financial inclusion. We recognise that the business’s growth in this time would not have been possible without the trust and support of our many stakeholders.

“We build public trust through transparency, including open communication about our tax affairs, including via our Tax Report,” Molefe said.

The report details our broader economic contribution across our markets – beyond the corporate taxes we pay. It also unpacks the evolving global tax environment, MTN’s approach to tax, tax governance, our TTC by market, as well as our effective tax rates.

In 2023, our West and Central Africa (WECA#) region accounted for 39% of our independently assured total tax contribution.This was followed by Nigeria, with 31%; our Southern and East Africa (SEA^) region at nearly 14%; and South Africa at almost 11%.

“We are very pleased to play our part in supporting Africa’s progress and encourage stakeholders to explore our Tax Report for a detailed look at our impact beyond the economic activity created through providing essential communications services across 17 African markets.”

For our 2023 Tax Report, please see MTN Group | home (mtn-investor.com)

MTN’s Fintech business is pleased to announce the appointment of Patrick Attoungbre as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MTN Fintech Côte d’Ivoire, effective November 2023. In assuming this role, Patrick will drive MTN’s Fintech business in Côte d’Ivoire, marking a significant milestone in the company’s expansion.

Bringing a wealth of experience in the telecommunications and fintech sectors, particularly within the African continent, Patrick has nearly two decades of expertise. His previous executive roles within the MTN Group have positioned him as a highly respected leader in the industry.

Serigne Dioum, Group Fintech CEO at MTN, expressed his enthusiasm, saying, “We look forward to working with Patrick as we continue to innovate and shape the future of fintech in Côte d’Ivoire. His experience and leadership will undoubtedly drive our success in the market.”

During Patrick’s tenure as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for MTN Côte d’Ivoire, he played a pivotal role in reshaping the MTN brand and making substantial contributions to the country’s telecommunications sector. Over a three-year period, his leadership resulted in outstanding performance, marked by revenue growth, increased subscriber numbers, and a greater market share for MTN.

Before his time in Côte d’Ivoire, Patrick served as the CMO for MTN Cameroon, where he successfully enhanced the commercial function. Additionally, he achieved remarkable success by launching the mobile money business in MTN Congo Brazzaville, transforming it into one of the group’s most thriving mobile money operations.

Patrick is a distinguished alumnus of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his MBA. He also holds a Master’s degree in Logistics from the Institut National Polytechnique FHB in Côte d’Ivoire.

He takes the helm from Acting CEO, Gedeon Agbe, who demonstrated exceptional leadership in guiding the team during the transition period from July to October 2023. We extend our sincerest gratitude to Gedeon for his outstanding contributions during this period.

In the first half of 2023, MTN Group delivered resilient results, advanced our strategy by partnering with Mastercard on the MTN fintech business, and progressed plans to exit Afghanistan. This was achieved in a difficult operating environment marked by elevated inflation, weaker local currencies and regulatory developments across our 19 markets.

“We delivered a resilient performance in H1 23 and made good strategic progress against a tough macro backdrop,” said MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita.

“In South Africa, we were very encouraged by the improved network availability on the back of our power-resilience investment, resulting in a stronger Q2 23 performance than Q1 23,” he said. By end-June, MTN South Africa’s network availability was more than 90% despite severe electricity shortages across the country.

“In Nigeria, we delivered a very strong operational result, having navigated the cash shortages in Q1 23 and increased inflation,” Mupita said. “The policy changes implemented in Nigeria in Q2 23 have short-term negative impacts, but we see these as being very constructive for the investment climate in the medium to longer term.”

MTN Group’s service revenue grew 15% to almost R108 billion in constant-currency terms. This was driven by increases in revenue from data services of 24% and from fintech services of 22%. Revenue from voice services increased 6% in the period. 

At the end of June 2023, we had 292 million subscribers with whom we worked to create shared value. This subscriber base – 4% higher than the same period last year – benefited from lower data rates and improved access to broadband services.

To facilitate the digital economy, we increased the number of active data users by more than 7% to nearly 140 million; reported a 19% increase in overall data traffic; and improved data affordability by reducing the average effective rate per megabyte by more than 22%.

We continued to invest in world-class networks and platforms for the people of Africa, committing R17.2 billion in capital expenditure in the first six months of 2023. The Group’s balance sheet remained strong, with all key metrics well within the limits of our loan covenants.

Driven by solid revenue growth and improved efficiencies, adjusted headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased by 25% to 749 cents and adjusted return on equity (ROE) expanded by one percentage point to 24.4%. These were in line with our medium-term guidance.

The MTN Group Fintech business delivered on our rapid expansion plans. The volume of transactions increased by 37% to 8.3 billion in the first half of the year. These were executed by 61 million active MoMo customers.

Following the bespoke process to identify and potentially introduce strategic minority investors into MTN Group Fintech, we executed commercial agreements with Mastercard to support the acceleration and growth of our fintech business’s payments and remittance services.

MTN and Mastercard also signed a memorandum of understanding which provides for a minority investment by Mastercard into Group Fintech based on a total enterprise valuation of about US$5.2 billion for the business on a cash and debt-free basis. Signing of the definitive investment agreements is expected to occur in the very near term as we approach finalisation of customary due diligence. The closing of the investment will be subject to customary closing conditions.

We continued to work to simplify our portfolio. The process for MTN Group to exit Afghanistan in an orderly fashion through the sale of our entire shareholding to Investcom AF, and affiliate company of M1, remains well on track. The transaction received conditional regulatory approval to proceed, pending the submission of relevant documentation to the Afghanistan Regulatory Authority.

Looking ahead, MTN will keep working to create shared value across our markets. “We are focused on the continued execution of our Ambition 2025, which remains relevant in the current macroeconomic volatility and presents attractive scope for growth,” said Mupita.

“As we manage the challenges in our operating environment, as well as the near-term impacts on our top-line and margins, we maintain our medium-term guidance.” 

MTN Group reported a resilient performance in the first half of 2022, balancing an accelerated investment into its networks, reducing the cost to communicate and the delivery of solid financial results.

We advanced the delivery of our strategy under challenging conditions, which included macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility, global supply chain disruptions, constrained on-grid power supply in South Africa and greater regulatory requirements across many markets.

“Notwithstanding the tough macro conditions, MTN remained focused on investing in our markets to increase broadband coverage and to reduce the cost to communicate,” said President and CEO Ralph Mupita. “We accelerated network investment to R17.1 billion and spent an additional R7 billion on securing 4G and 5G spectrum in the key markets of South Africa and Nigeria.”

The investment in networks increased access to broadband services to 85.5% of the population and led to an average 22.5% reduction in data tariffs. Our contribution to society and economies also included cash taxes of R7.3 billion paid to nation states in the period.

In driving investment that grows gross capital formation, the contribution we made to jobs and the fiscal resources of nation states was underlined by good financial results in the first six months of 2022.

In constant-currency terms, service revenue grew by 14.8% to R92.5 billion; earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 15.1% to R43.9 billion before once-off items; and the EBITDA margin expanded by 0.3 percentage points to 45.3%. This was supported by the focused execution of our expense efficiency programme.

“Growth in data revenue was particularly strong, up 35.9%, driven by MTN Nigeria, MTN Ghana, MTN Cameroon and MTN South Africa,” said Mupita, adding that fintech revenue grew by 14.0%, with solid performances from Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana.

“The introduction of fintech taxes in some markets slowed revenue growth in Q2, but we remain encouraged by the ecosystem growth as users, agents and merchants continued to grow healthily during the period under review, with transaction volumes growing by 31.5% during the period.”

As part of our Ambition 2025, we are building five scale platform businesses on top of a very strong connectivity network. The fintech platform is the most mature of these, and in the first half it had 60.7 million Mobile Money users (up 24% year-on-year), generating six billion transactions worth US$116.3 billion. The total number of MTN subscribers in the period was 281.6 million, up 5.6%.

We made progress in our work to separate our fintech and fibre businesses from our GSM business and have started the process of engagement with select potential strategic investors into the Group Fintech structure, the outcome of which should be concluded by the end of the year.

Chief Financial Officer Tsholo Molefe said the Group accelerated the deleveraging of the balance sheet in the six months to end-June 2022, boosted by the repatriation of R9.4 billion in cash from operating companies, including R4.5 billion from Nigeria: “We continue to explore opportunities for further liability management and remain focused on reducing the hard currency liabilities on our balance sheet.”

Underlying operating free cashflow growth was strong at 24.0%, and return on equity increased to 24.2%, reflecting the consistent delivery of earnings.

We accelerated our portfolio transformation, delivering R9.2 billion in asset realisations in the first half and bringing the total realised since March 2020 to R15.8 billion, with proceeds supporting the group leverage and liquidity positions, which strengthened during the period. In line with our pan-Africa focus, we accepted a binding offer for 100% of MTN Afghanistan.

Localisations remained important in the period, as we prioritised creating shared value, broadening local participation and deepening capital markets. In Ghana we increased local ownership to 23.7% through share sales to pension funds and strategic investors.

Mupita said the headwinds facing customers and the business looked likely to persist in the second half.

“The business is well positioned to navigate the prevailing market conditions. In South Africa, we are focused on improving the resilience and availability of the network, given the constrained on-grid power situation. Battery and generators solutions will be deployed to restore network availability to the world-class standards our customers have been used to. This resilience plan will be executed within the capital expenditure envelope of the business.

“If we experience the same level of loadshedding in H2 as we did in H1 in South Africa, service revenue will come in slightly under guidance, with margins at the lower end of the range communicated to investors. The structurally higher growth opportunities in our markets continue to support the investment case of a compelling Africa growth story that delivers digital and financial inclusion to Africans,” he concluded.

MTN Group reported strong financial, operational and sustainability results in 2021 in a tough macro environment. These were delivered through strong strategic execution and sustained commercial momentum across 19 markets, in the year in which Africa’s leading mobile operator started implementing its refreshed Ambition 2025 strategy.

“We adapted to the extraordinary circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and started shaping the MTN of the future through the execution of Ambition 2025,” said MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita.

In constant-currency terms, service revenue grew by 18.3% to R171.8 billion; earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 23.7% to R80.8 billion; and the EBITDA margin expanded by 2.2 percentage points to 44.5%. The Board declared a final dividend of 300 cents per share.

“The performance was underpinned by pleasing growth in our larger operating companies, operating leverage and the benefits of our expense efficiency programme,” said Mupita, adding that headline earnings per share adjusted for non-operational items increased by 26.6%; return on equity expanded by 2.6 percentage points to 19.6%; and organic operating cashflow accelerated by 35.2% to R38.3 billion.

The results were delivered despite a slowdown in subscriber additions related to industry-wide regulations in Nigeria. At year-end, MTN Group had a total of 272.4 million subscribers, up 2.9 million from end-2020. Greater adoption of data and fintech services resulted in the addition of 11.1 million new data users and 10.4 million new Mobile Money users to reach totals of 122.0 million and 56.8 million respectively. To cater for the 53.3% expansion in data traffic and 41.1% increase in fintech volumes, we continued to invest in the capacity and resilience of our networks and platforms, deploying total capex of R32.7 billion in the year.

We increased our financial flexibility to capture the opportunities identified by Ambition 2025. We deleveraged the balance sheet, paying US$1.4 billion in dollar debt and improving the holding company leverage to 1.0x from 2.2x. This was boosted by cash of R18.4 billion repatriated from our operating companies and R4.1 billion in proceeds from our asset realisation programme (ARP) during the 2021 financial year. We anticipate further net proceeds of R8.8 billion from the public offer of MTN Nigeria shares and the sale of passive tower infrastructure, once completed.

Among other highlights of the ARP – which aims to reduce debt, simplify our portfolio, reduce risk and improve returns – were the New York Stock Exchange listing of IHS Towers, in which we have a 26% stake; the localisations of a number of our operating companies; and our exit from operations in Yemen and Syria.

We progressed work to build the largest and most valuable platforms, reporting strong growth in our fintech business. It now has 57 million monthly active users and generates 10 billion transactions with total transaction value of US$239 billion within the 2021 calendar.

With a step change in our approach to sustainability, we created more shared value. We connected 23 million more people to broadband and achieved rural broadband coverage of 83% against our target of 95% by 2025. We reduced the cost to communicate by a 15.3% average reduction in the costs of a GB of data across our markets. Our economic value added to nation states where we operate increased to R115 billion, with cash taxes paid up at R11 billion across our markets. We linked long-term incentives for executives to various ESG indicators, with a focus on reaching net zero emissions by 2040; progressing diversity and inclusion; and extending rural broadband.

With growth structurally sustaining at higher levels, we enhanced our medium-term guidance, raising our targets for Group service revenue growth and returns. The Board also adopted a revised dividend policy to provide guidance on an annual basis in March indicating the minimum ordinary dividend expected in the financial year ahead, aligned to the group capital allocation framework.

“We remain focused on providing leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress and creating shared value for our stakeholders. Our enhanced medium-term guidance reflects the growth we see across our markets, as we play our part in driving digital and financial inclusion across Africa,” concluded Mupita.

MTN Group is today pleased to announce a solid set of third quarter operating results, plans for a public offer of shares in MTN Nigeria, progress in finalising a passive infrastructure deal for MTN South Africa as well as in our work to create shared value across our 20 markets, with ESG at the core.

For the quarter to end-September 2021, the Group also reduced debt and holding company leverage, recorded strong financial results in line with medium-term guidance and advanced the delivery of our Ambition 2025 strategy.

“It’s been a busy quarter, and I’m particularly pleased with the sustained operational momentum across our businesses,” said MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita.

“Material progress was made in accelerating the deleveraging of the holding company balance sheet, and our asset realisation programme and portfolio optimisation priorities are progressing well. The process of structurally separating our fintech and fibre assets remains on track.”

He added that the debt reduction led to S&P upgrading MTN’s standalone credit rating to investment grade – a level last achieved five years’ ago.

At period-end, the group subscriber base was 272m.

Driven by continued strong growth momentum in major markets Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, MTN Group’s service revenue ramped up 19.1% to R125 billion in the first nine months of the year. Data and fintech service revenue increased by 34.5% and 35.0% respectively. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 24.1%, with margins expanding 2.1 percentage points to 45.0% on a constancy-currency basis.

We advanced financial inclusion, reaching 51 million Mobile Money customers in 16 markets, processing almost 20 000 transactions a minute, with the value of transactions up 67.2% year-on-year to US$175.5bn.

As part of our asset realisation programme, the listing of IHS was an important milestone, creating a liquidity platform for the future to deleverage further. Our further localisation in Uganda with the intention to sell 20% of the Group’s holding in MTN Uganda is in progress.

We are also announcing a public offer of just under 3% of shares in MTN Nigeria as part of the statement of intent communicated previously to further localise 14% of the Group’s holding in MTN Nigeria over the medium term. MTN South Africa is making good progress with a sale and leaseback of its towers.

Aligned to our commitment to achieve net zero by 2040, we started working with the Science-Based Targets initiative to reduce our emissions in line with climate science. In joining Business Ambition for 1.5°C, MTN became part of the UN-backed Race to Zero campaign. In recognition of the strides made in governance practices, our MSCI ESG rating was upgraded to ‘A’ from a rating of ‘BBB’.

Looking ahead, Mupita was encouraged that the number of new COVID-19 cases across Africa had started to slow, but said the pandemic continued to impact lives and livelihoods and demand for mobile services: “It highlights the vital importance of telecommunications as people rely on these services for information and to work, learn and entertain from home. We as MTN are well positioned to deliver and will invest in line with our capital allocation framework to capture these opportunities.”