MTN Nigeria Plc has just released its financial reports for the 2023 fiscal year, highlighting a ₦177.8 billion loss before tax. A report that shows the decline from the previous year’s ₦518.8 billion profit before the task.
According to the report by the telecommunication giant, MTN, all shareholders’ funds have been wiped out because of these losses for the first time. The company states that one of the driving forces behind the huge losses in 2023 is an unexpected ₦740 billion foreign currency loss stemming from the devaluation of the Naira.
However, MTN Nigeria recorded a positive increase in the total number of subscribers at 5.3% to 79.7 million, while active data users grew 12.7% to 44.6 million. These positive increases did not, however, make up for the losses the telecom company incurred.
Other revenue streams, like service revenue, made a 22.4% increase to ₦2.5 trillion. Meanwhile, the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) saw a 12.3% increase to ₦1.2 trillion.
However, the EBITDA margin went negative 4.5 percentage points arriving at 48.7%, leading to a net forex loss amounting to ₦137 billion loss after taxes.
In addition, Profit after tax saw a negative 14.3% to ₦344.5 billion, accounting for the forex loss by the company reducing its shareholders’ earnings per share by 14.1%.
Further into more causes of the staggering loss by MTN Nigeria are, the rapid devaluation of the Naira, record-breaking inflation rates (28.9% in December 2023), geopolitical disrupts and cash shortages during the redesign of the Naira, affecting the company at several angles.
In conclusion, MTN Nigeria stated that these issues contributed to the loss of ₦40.8 billion in shareholders’ funds and ₦208 billion in retained earnings.
