MTN said its service revenue grew by 17.8 percent to R42.3 billion at end-March 2021, EBITDA rose by 21.3 percent and the EBITDA margin increased to 44.2 percent from 42.7 percent.

“The MTN Group has delivered a solid Q1 2021 trading performance, with service revenue and EBITDA margins expanding on the back of continued commercial momentum and resilient networks,” said MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita.

The Group results were supported by double-digit service revenue growth from our large operations and continued focus on our expense efficiency program.

MTN South Africa recorded strong performances across the consumer, enterprise and wholesale businesses. MTN South Africa has a subscriber base of 32.1 million, and achieved 11.8 percent increase in service revenue.

Group data revenue grew by almost a third amid sustained demand for work-from-home services, digital entertainment as well as online education offerings.

Fintech revenue accelerated, expanding by more than 31 percent as the value of fintech transactions increased by 87 percent to US$53 billion.

The Group’s strong performance was despite 1.7 million decrease in subscriber numbers to 277.9 million as MTN Nigeria’s subscribers declined because of restrictions on all new SIM sales and activations in that market.

MTN Group’s active data subscribers declined by 1.3 million to 115.6 million, while the number of MoMo customers increased by 0.2 million to 46.6 million.