Category: Media releases
MTN Cameroon and Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) have signed a strategic national network roaming agreement which will see Camtel expand 2G/3G and 4G coverage in areas of Cameroon which are not already covered by its network.
This is in line with the Cameroonian telecommunication ministry’s transformation objective, which includes initiatives to accelerate citizens’ participation in the digital economy in a cost-effective way. It is also aligned with MTN Group’s Ambition 2025 strategic intent of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress.
“One of MTN Group’s strategic priorities is to build the largest and most valuable platforms, including network as a service,” said MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita. “The roaming agreement with the state-owned Camtel is a significant development in our work to deliver on this: we are excited to bring our world-class services closer to the people of Cameroon.”
MTN Cameroon CEO, Stephen Blewett and Camtel CEO, Madam Judith Yah Sunday Achidi signed the agreement on Wednesday, 13 April 2022 at MTN Group’s head office in Johannesburg.
Camtel’s subscribers will benefit from access to MTN’s existing network infrastructure, which covers 97% of population with 2G, 90% with 3G and 70% with 4G, allowing Camtel to expand its geographic coverage for a significantly improved customer experience.
“This agreement is a milestone for MTN Cameroon and is in line with our belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a connected life,” said Blewitt.
Madam Achidi concurred: “We want to provide an environment where technology facilitates people’s daily lives, bringing them value wherever they are.”
MTN Group has joined forces with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) Meta, ICMEC (the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children) and Child Helpline International, with the support of the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), to launch the Help Children be Children campaign and the Child Safety Online Africa Portal to increase public awareness of the impact of Child Sexual Abuse Material and help prevent its spread in target countries on the African continent.
From 2019 to 2020, the number of reports received by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) of child sexual abuse images and videos uploaded from the African continent grew by a staggering 81% to almost 2,4 million.
This new campaign is aimed at raising awareness of the gradual increase of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and how it can be reported by the public in target countries. Additionally, the campaign will help train law enforcement and child helplines in target countries, positively engage policymakers and stakeholders through roundtables, to join the global fight against CSAM.
Nompilo Morafo, Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer said, “Protecting children online is a global challenge, which requires a global approach. As we lead digital solutions for Africa’s progress, we have a critical role in ensuring that every African child is kept safe online. In alignment with our African values, we need to join forces to create a safe online village for our children. One where they are free from fear, humiliation, and abuse. One where they can have a normal childhood.”
MTN funded the development of the Child Safety Online Africa Portal and awareness campaign in partnership with the IWF. The portal is aimed at eradicating the spread of child sexual abuse online and provides internet users with a tool to report any record of child sexual abuse material available online across the continent.
Emma Hardy Communications Director at the IWF said “We have successfully launched 49 portals all around the world, including 23 in Africa, providing a tool to report illegal imagery to millions. Through the portals, the IWF and its partners such as MTN are working with governments, law enforcement units and other organisations to enable every single person to report child sexual abuse material online.”
Images and videos of child sexual abuse show real children who have been victims of some of the worst forms of abuse. By reporting child sexual abuse material online through the portal, photos and videos will be assessed by IWF’s experienced analysts and removed from the internet if confirmed to be child sexual abuse in nature.
David Miles, Head of Safety at Meta for Europe, Middle East and Africa said: “For more than a decade, we’ve been an industry leader in child safety around the world. We’ve helped build the tools used to investigate this terrible crime, rescue children and bring justice to victims. While we invest heavily in industry-leading tools to prevent such abuse from happening in the first place, it’s also important we spread awareness through campaigns and partnerships like this one so no child should ever have to face this abuse, whether offline or online.”
Bob Cunningham, President & CEO of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, said, “The prevalence of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is a growing threat in Africa and around the world. Every time abusive images are viewed or shared, children are revictimised. Therefore, it is essential that CSAM is reported, and local authorities have the tools and capacities to protect child victims. This awareness campaign is a crucial step to reaching parents, caregivers, and communities to help prevent future abuse before it happens.”
Patrick Krens, Executive Director at Child Helpline International said: “If we want to be more effective and efficient in our combat against online sexual exploitation and abuse of children and young people we must invest more time, money and human resources in the 3Ps of Prevention, Protection and Prosecution. For all three areas it is important to listen to what children have to say to us and each other. Every child has a voice, and we believe that no child should be left unheard.”
Carmen Corbin, Advisor for the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime, Global Programme on Cybercrime in Africa said “Building strong capacities in the national criminal justice sectors in Africa to investigate and prosecute online child exploitation is one of our programme’s priorities. But we are also aware that public awareness and prevention campaigns are the first line of defence that will make communities, families, and children able to avoid and report child sexual abuse material online. We want a safer Internet for all children, a place where they can learn, play and develop their talents without being threatened by predators”.
While 23 countries in Africa have already stepped up and developed their own portal or hotline, the Child Safety Online Africa Portal will be accessible in countries where there is not yet a reporting mechanism to ensure even more countries on the continent are able to report child sexual abuse material.
To help children be children today, for tomorrow, report child sexual abuse material through this portal: africachildsafety.com
MTN Group welcomes the Moody’s Investor Services upgrade to its credit rating outlook to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’, in line with its rerating of the South African sovereign and to reflect MTN’s strong financial performance and reduced leverage.
“As a company domiciled in and with strong credit linkages to South Africa, our company credit rating has benefited from Moody’s decision to upgrade the sovereign’s outlook to stable from negative,” said MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita. “However, we are particularly encouraged that our work to deleverage the business faster and our strong financial performance have also been recognised by Moody’s.”
In March, MTN Group’s 2021 results showed an 18.3% increase in service revenue in constant-currency terms to R171.8 billion and an improvement in the holding company (Holdco) leverage to 1.0x from 2.2x in 2020 as Holdco net debt reduced to R30.1 billion from R43.3 billion.
“In line with our Ambition 2025, we are committed to faster deleveraging of the Holdco balance sheet, which gives us the financial flexibility to take advantage of the attractive growth opportunities we have identified,” said MTN Group Chief Financial Officer Tsholofelo Molefe. “Moody’s upgrade to our outlook encourages us that we are on track with the delivery of our strategy.”
In October 2021, S&P Global Ratings upgraded the Group’s standalone credit rating to investment grade for the first time in five years.
“MTN Group will continue to deleverage the business faster by reducing our US dollar debt, improving the funding mix and continuing to execute on our asset realisation programme,” said Mupita. “We will also retain our focus on upstreaming cash from operations as well as keep a tight handle of liquidity management at a Holdco level.”
MTN Group has been recognised as having one of South Africa’s finest Investor Relations teams, scooping three awards at the inaugural Intellidex Top Investor Relations SA Survey Awards.
Investment analysts and portfolio managers surveyed for the awards placed MTN Group first in the industrial sector, third among large cap stocks listed on the JSE, as well as third in the overall rankings.
“MTN Group is honoured to have received this recognition, which is evidence of our commitment to transparent communication with our stakeholders, in this case the investment community,” said Group CFO Tsholo Molefe. “We strive to keep the capital markets appraised of our progress as we execute on our Ambition 2025 strategy, which is centred around driving accelerated growth, faster deleveraging, and revealing value within its financial investments and platforms.”
Respondents shared their views on the quality of investor relations among JSE-listed companies and were asked to rank the best and worst five companies among those they cover. They were also asked to rank these companies on a number of factors including the quality of engagement with senior management, annual reports, notes to the financial accounts, presentations, earnings and booklets.
“We are humbled by the recognition and grateful to our investors, analysts and other stakeholders who engage MTN,” said MTN Group Executive for Investor Relations Thato Motlanthe. “This feedback is invaluable in driving our Investor Relations programme and journey of progress. It’s also important to acknowledge the hard work of the Investor Relations team at MTN, the collaboration of the various teams within the Group as well as the guidance and support of Management and the Board. It is all critical in enriching MTN’s Investor Relations effort.”
The introduction of this survey is expected to improve engagement by listed companies with the investment community, with this ultimately encouraging better communication.
MTN Group is pleased to announce senior leadership appointments to operating companies in Nigeria, Iran and Sudan, all of them internal candidates, as we focus on executing on our strategy to drive growth, de-leverage faster and reveal value in our fintech and fibre businesses. The appointments are effective 1 April 2022.
“A vital enabler of our strategy is having the best talent, culture and future-fit skills,” says MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita. “Today’s announcement demonstrates the depth of talent within the Group, as well as the strength of our succession planning.”
Following the recent appointment of MTN Nigeria Chief Operating Officer Mazen Mroue as MTN Group Chief Information and Technology Officer, Hassan Jaber assumes the COO role at MTN Nigeria. He moves from MTN Irancell, where he serves as COO, bringing with him some 25 years of telecoms and digital experience within the MTN Group.
Jaber’s track record of building and scaling-up telecom operations and developing digital businesses through the power of mobile technology will be instrumental to MTN Nigeria as it plays its part in delivering on the Group’s strategic intent of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress. He has served MTN in numerous markets, including Ghana, Guinea-Conakry, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen.
Malik Melamu, with over 28 years of managerial and executive experience, will assume the position of MTN Irancell COO, joining from MTN Sudan where he has been CEO over the last five years. Among other roles at MTN, he previously served as MTN Benin CEO and as Executive for Sales and Distribution and Customer Experience at MTN Group.
Stepping into the CEO role at MTN Sudan is Ziad Sabah, whose career within MTN spans more than a decade, most recently as MTN Syria CEO and before that as the Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Syria. Ziad is a seasoned business leader and will play a pivotal role in strengthening MTN Sudan’s market position through initiatives to advance digital and financial inclusion.
“These appointments demonstrate the depth of leadership bench-strength within the MTN Group, and we remain focused on delivering sustainable growth to our stakeholders. Nigeria, Iran and Sudan are markets with attractive demographics and tremendous potential growth opportunities for digital and financial inclusion,” concludes Mupita.
MTN Group this week committed to support a bi-national conference for businesses operating in South Africa and Nigeria during the first visit to its South African headquarters of the chairman of MTN Nigeria, the Group’s biggest operating company.
The commitment was made to Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa H.E. Muhammed Haruna Manta when he met with the MTN Nigeria delegation, led by MTN Nigeria Chairman Ernest Ndukwe and MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola, at MTN Group headquarters in Fairland. MTN Group Chairman Mcebisi Jonas and Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita hosted the visit.
Jonas said the trip from the Group’s Nigerian colleagues was productive: “It has been a fruitful two days in which, together with our Nigeria team, we were able to unpack our plans in Nigeria and how these align to the Group’s strategic intent of providing leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress.”
Ndukwe said MTN Nigeria was committed to that country’s socioeconomic development: “MTN Nigeria believes that we should not only provide a service to customers, but also deepen connectivity access as well as drive financial inclusion. To this end, for 2022 MTN Nigeria intends to ensure the connectivity of an additional 2 000 rural communities and has secured 100 MHz of 3500 spectrum to enable Nigeria’s move to 5G.”
Mupita underscored the importance of MTN’s operations in Nigeria and South Africa to the overall health of the Group: “Nigeria and South Africa are our largest operations, contributing two-thirds of the value of the Group. Supporting the strengthening of economic and business relationships between the two countries is in line with our strategic priority to create shared value.”
Toriola elaborated on his operation’s role in creating shared value: “MTN Nigeria is committed to supporting the economic development of the country through driving public-private partnerships and initiatives such as CACOVID, the AU vaccine initiative and the construction of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway.”
MTN Group owns 75.6% of MTN Nigeria and continues to work towards further broadening the local shareholder base, subject to market conditions and regulatory approvals. Over the medium term, we aim to reduce our shareholding to approximately 65%.
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 and Rakuten Symphony have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to conduct live 4G and 5G OpenRAN Proof of Concept (PoC) trials in South Africa, Nigeria, and Liberia based on Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP). RCP assists telcos worldwide with the deployment of fully cloud-native network services.
The trials, which will start in 2022, combine RCP OpenRAN technology with advanced automation and autonomous network capabilities with one of Africa’s top brownfield operators.
“We are pleased to announce our partnership with Rakuten Symphony to deploy live 4G and 5G OpenRAN trials across South Africa, Nigeria, and Liberia. In line with our belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life, we are committed to actively driving the rapid expansion of affordable 4G and 5G coverage across markets in Africa,” said Mazen Mroue, MTN Group Chief Technology & Information Systems Officer. “We have announced our support towards the deployment of OpenRAN technology in 2021 to modernise our radio access network footprint. Through this partnership we hope to target innovation and cost efficiencies that will enable us to continue delivering an exceptional customer experience.”
The solutions, currently deployed by Rakuten Mobile in Japan, include cloud orchestration, Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP) and automation of radio site commissioning and network integration.
“We’re excited to take this next step in our partnership with MTN,” said Rabih Dabboussi, Chief Revenue Officer of Rakuten Symphony. “This PoC will demonstrate how one of the world’s top-tier brownfield mobile operators can utilise Rakuten Symphony’s network automation and orchestration solutions for cost-effective network transformation and timely deployment of next-generation network services to their customers across Africa.”
Rakuten Mobile has set multiple industry landmarks with its full-scale launch of commercial services on the world’s first fully virtualized cloud-native mobile network*1 in 2020, and Rakuten Symphony, launched in 2021, is now bringing that technology to operators globally. Rakuten Symphony brings together Rakuten’s telco products, services, and solutions under a single global banner to offer 4G and 5G infrastructure and platform solutions to customers worldwide.
In line with MTN Group’s Ambition 2025 strategy of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress, this MoU will enable the launch of new services more quickly, cost-effectively, and seamlessly.
MTN and Rakuten Symphony will be collaborating with Accenture and Tech Mahindra to conduct the trials in South Africa, Nigeria and Liberia.
Communications Media and Technology Lead for Africa Nitesh Singh said “As one of the leading professional services firms in technology and networks in particular it is an exciting time in the industry for all parties on the OpenRan journey. In line with MTN Group’s Ambition 2025 of leading digital solutions for Africa, we are excited to be part of the partnership with both Rakuten and MTN to ultimately pass these benefits on to MTN’s consumers in the market”.
President of Communication, Media and Entertainment (CME) and Chief Executive of Network Services in Tech Mahindra, Manish Vyas said, “Communication Service Providers today are increasingly focused on 5G network modernisation. As a leading provider of networks of the future, it is our mission to be a trusted transformation partner for operators globally. We bring in deep expertise in integrating OpenRAN sub-systems and enabling end-to-end transformation through planning, designing, testing, deployment, and operationalisation. This collaboration will enable MTN’s OpenRAN transformation program and will deliver benefits of disruptive Open RAN architecture to consumers and enterprises in Africa.”
Note:
*1 For a large scale commercial mobile network (as of October 1, 2019). Research: Stella Associa
* The company names, product and service names in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Africarare is the first Virtual Reality metaverse in Africa
MTN today became the first African company to enter the metaverse by purchasing land in Africarare.
Africarare which made its debut in South Africa in October 2021, is the first African Virtual Reality metaverse featuring digital land. This purchase will see MTN owning 144 plots of virtual land with an overall area of 12x12m.
Bernice Samuels, MTN’s Group Executive for Marketing said, “This is an exciting moment for us as we lead businesses on the continent to enter the metaverse marketplace. This is exactly what our Ambition 2025 strategy is premised on – leveraging trends that amplify consumer’s digital experiences and engagement. We have always been at the forefront of technological and digital changes and we remain alive to the exciting opportunities the metaverse presents for us and our customers’’.
This investment demonstrates MTN’s commitment to supporting African innovation as it is the first company on the continent to support an initiative of this kind. Through its presence in the metaverse, MTN intends to increase its customer attractiveness through a series of experiences merged with consumer passion points, like gaming and music.
MTN Group today unveiled its evolved visual identity, articulating the context behind the logo many have seen since 16 February 2022. It is just the second brand overhaul since the Group was founded in 1994. Back in 2004, the changes made to the brand resulted in MTN taking ownership of the colour yellow that is now synonymous with MTN. Importantly it also helped to elevate the brand to where it is today, recognised as the most valuable in Africa.
The brand is an extension and visual representation of the Group’s refreshed strategy, dubbed Ambition 2025 and premised on Leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress. Through the delivery of this strategy, MTN aims to accelerate growth by building the largest and most valuable platform businesses and driving its industry leading connectivity operations.
“Africa is a continent with enormous opportunity and energy,” says MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita. “We want to play our part in harnessing her potential and supporting her progress by driving digital and financial inclusion. It is a well-known fact that the youth are central to achieving this potential. Whilst we remain focussed on all our customers and stakeholders, our brand evolution demonstrates an enhanced focus on the youth.”
The new brand identity is modern, simple, bold, and digitally dynamic. It kicks off with a provocative and simple question, “What are we doing today?” With a clear and concise brand strategy that Opportunity + Energy = Progress, MTN understands that to truly unlock the full benefits and potential of the digital world people require a combination of drive, progressive thinking, and the right tools.
This rebrand highlights MTN’s commitment to continuously evolve and explore innovative initiatives that provide value to all our stakeholders. A pioneer of progress from the beginning, MTN looks to drive this progress further through action and doing. In delivering its vision, MTN aims to drive a positive shift in Africa and harness the continent’s boundless opportunity.
“Africa is never still. True progress can only be realised by ‘doing’,” says Bernice Samuels, MTN Group Executive for Marketing. “It is off this insight that we launch our new positioning by challenging, celebrating and providing tools for doers because when individuals, communities and countries progress, so too does Africa.”