After two consecutive quarters of falling customer subscriptions, MTN Uganda registered an increment in subscribers in the first quarter of 2018. However, the nation’s largest telecom has lost a large chunk of these due to regulatory activities instituted by the government.
In the year ended June 30th 2018, MTN Uganda subscribers dropped by 700,000 from 11.2 million in 2017 to 10.5 million subscribers. This translates to a 1.8% drop in the subscriber figures for the year ended June 30th, 2018. Reports the Daily Monitor.
MTN Uganda Subscribers drop
The temporary ban on SIM Card sale and mandatory registration on SIM cards enforced by UCC between March and May could be the major reasons for the dip.
A recognizable number of Ugandans has not received their National IDs. National IDs were the primary documents for SIM Card registration. Consequently, MTN being the largest telecom was destined to suffer huge subscriber losses.
The SIM Card registration process aimed to clean up the telecommunications sector by eliminating fake numbers that were encouraging crime.
The delay to ressolve customer issues could also be a reason for the drop in MTN’s subscriber base. This sparked a heated argument on social media under the #MTNUgandaMweddeko hashtag.
Even though MTN usually loses some customers, it has historically lured enough back to report growth in that revenues. But recent months have seen a shrink of hundreds of thousands of customers due regulatory directives.
MTN Uganda Mobile Money continues to flourish.
However, MTN’s financial results continued to exhibit positive growth with an 8.8% increase. Data and Mobile Money are the major sources of revenue. Mobile Money is a huge cash cow for MTN Uganda after a 15% growth between January and June 30th.
By the end of 2017, MTN Uganda had about 4.6 Million mobile money subscribers. However, the number has increased to 5.3 million within a space of 6 months. This has kept the “everywhere you go” telecom as the biggest mobile money service.
“We are well positioned to deliver growth despite the recent shake ups such as the newly introduced Excise Duty on mobile money and social media tax that have negatively affected the telecom and market.” said Mr Wim Vanhelleputte, the MTN chief executive officer.
MTN Uganda continues to face rising competition in the telecom industry. This is especially from Airtel Uganda which recently made the headlines by entering an agreement with K2 Telecom. MTN Uganda continues to fight for a licence renewal in Uganda.
