MTN Nigeria has restricted outgoing calls for millions of subscribers, in a move the company says will likely impact its revenue in the next financial year.
This follows a directive by authorities to all mobile operators in Nigeria on Monday that SIMs that are not associated with National Identity Numbers (NINs) must be excluded from using services.
MTN Group, Africa’s biggest mobile operator, notified shareholders today of the development at its biggest subsidiary, saying it will this Friday provide more details of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) directive, including pro forma potential impact on service revenue for full-year 2022.
Nigeria is Johannesburg-headquartered MTN’s most profitable and biggest market in its continental footprint.
In the latest reporting period, MTN delivered growth across all revenue lines in Nigeria for the financial year ended December 2021, which it says demonstrates the underlying strength and momentum of the business.
Nonetheless, as it stands, for MTN Nigeria, outgoing voice revenue from the current subscribers who have not submitted a NIN amounts to about 9% of its total full-year 2021 service revenue on an annualised basis.
For MTN Group, this would amount to approximately 3% of full-year 2021 service revenue on an annualised basis.
Resultantly, the telco says: “MTN Group and MTN Nigeria intend to host a call with investors on 8 April 2022 at 13.30 GMT to update them on this directive.
“The focus areas of the call are intended to include: details of the NCC directive and how MTN Nigeria has implemented it, estimated timelines for completing the registration of subscribers currently suspended from making outgoing calls, and pro forma potential impact on service revenue for FY 2022 given the directive.
“The call also intends to update on any further information emerging from engagements with the NCC and telecom industry bodies in Nigeria,” reads the notice to shareholders.
The telco says it received a formal directive from the NCC to implement a phased suspension of services to affected subscribers, placing them on “receive only” status with effect from 4 April.
“In line with operating licence requirements, MTN Nigeria has complied with the directive and implemented the restrictions on only outgoing voice calls of affected subscribers. All other services remain available to all subscribers, including those that are yet to submit their NINs.”
Despite this, MTN Nigeria says it has made good progress, with around 47 million subscribers having submitted their NINs by 31 March. This, it says, represents approximately 67% of MTN Nigeria’s subscriber base and 76% of service revenue for full-year 2021.
MTN says it continues to engage with the NCC and National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) – including through relevant industry bodies – as it has done since December 2020, when the initial directive to link NINs to SIMs was made.
Led by Karl Toriola, MTN Nigeria CEO, the telco says to support the government move, it has deployed more than 4 200 points of enrolment across the country for the enrolment drive.
“This network continues to be expanded to ensure enrolment is within reach of all Nigerians. MTN Nigeria also continues to work with the NIMC to accelerate the bulk verification of NINs collected.”
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