MTN Uganda customers reach 8.8 million

MARCH 13,2014.

THE OBSERVER.

Mobile phone operator MTN Uganda grew its subscriber base to 8.8m people last year, up from 8.1m people in 2012, according to figures released by the company. Uganda has about 17m phone subscribers.

In a statement, the company said that their total revenue increased by 17.8 per cent between 2012 and 2013, supported mainly by the increase in data revenue and voice calls. MTN said revenue from SMS platform declined as more people opted to use newer data-driven social media platforms like facebook, twitter, Whatsapp and Viber, among others.

“The annual results indicate that MTN Mobile Money continued to perform well in Uganda andrecorded a 47 per cent increase in registered subscribers to 5.2 million, with more than 25 million transactions per month,” according to the statement.

MTN Uganda CEO Mazen Mroué said: “I am happy to note that the results continue to show a steady performance for the MTN group and particularly for MTN Uganda, currently with a subscriber base of nearly nine million customers with mobile penetration increased to 44 per cent.”

He said the company’s focus over the last year was “to enhance our infrastructure investment towards improved network quality.”

Mroué said mobile money remained the fastest-growing product in Uganda with more than 5.2 million registered users each transacting on average five times a month. The popularity and growth of MTN mobile money, he said, was supported by a large agent network, which exceeded 27,000 agents.

MTN says it invested Shs 140bn last year in upgrading the network infrastructure and adding another 400km of national fibre. By December 2013, the company’s total fibre infrastructure exceeded 3,200km.