MTN grows market share to almost 65% in Rwanda

MTN has increased its market share in Rwanda and now services 64.6% of mobile users in the country.

That's according to an update from MTN Rwanda's CEO, Mitwa Ng'ambi, as part of the operator's Q1 trading update published on Friday.

Ng'ambi said MTN recorded a solid first-quarter performance with mobile subscribers growing 5% year-on-year (YoY) to 6.5 million by the end of March 2022.

More subscribers are also using MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) and data services in the small East African nation.

Active data users increased by 26.3% YoY to 2.2 million and MoMo users increased by 12.1% to 3.8 million.

MTN Rwanda's service revenue increased by 24.5% YoY to 50.9 billion Rwandan francs (US$49.7 million) and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) grew by 15.7% to Rwf24.7 billion (US$24 million) for the quarter.

Data revenue maintained its positive momentum, rising by 13.8% – accounting for 17.1% of service revenue in Rwanda – while data traffic also increased 33.3% YoY.

"In the first quarter, Rwanda's economy made a rebound as domestic conditions improved following the easing of mobility restrictions. Latest figures from Rwanda's National Institute of Statistics show a forecast of 7% growth for 2022, following a 10.9% growth in 2021," Ng'ambi said of Rwanda's economic outlook.

Uganda ups its game

MTN's operation in neighboring country Uganda also saw growth across the board according to its Q1 trading update published earlier in the week.

In Uganda, MTN's mobile subscribers increased by 8.5% to 15.9 million. Active data subscribers also grew by 20.1% to 5.4 million while fintech customers increased by 14.9% to 9.5 million.

MTN Uganda's service revenue grew by 11% YoY for the quarter, to 536.3 billion Ugandan shillings (US$151 million). Data revenue was up by 45% to Ush115.6 billion (US$32.6 million) and Fintech revenue grew 20.7% to Ush 144.8 billion (US$40.8 million).

MTN Uganda CEO Wim Vanhelleputte said that the telco continues to drive digital inclusion in the country by lowering the price of its lower tier Internet bundles and improving smartphone affordability, including through a partnership with fintech financing platform M-KOPA announced in March.

Smartphone penetration on the MTN Uganda network increased to 31.4% at the end of March 2022, compared to 24.2% the previous year.

*Top image is of Mitwa Ng'ambi, CEO of MTN Rwanda. (Source: MTN).

— Paula Gilbert, Editor, Connecting Africa