MTN in talks to sell three West African operations to Axian Telecom
MTN Group is in talks to sell its operations in three West African nations – Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, and Liberia.
The group confirmed it has received an offer for its equity interests in the three opcos from Axian Telecom, which it is now evaluating.
“As we are at an early stage of deliberations, we emphasize that any process of this nature will entail extensive engagements with stakeholders who will be appropriately informed as and when the evaluation process has materially progressed,” the group said as part of its quarterly update for the three months ended March 31, 2023.
The move is in line with MTN’s “portfolio optimization focus” within its Ambition 2025 strategy, whereby it is assessing its investments, “to improve returns and reduce risk.”
“In line with this focus, MTN Group is evaluating an orderly exit of three operations in West Africa over the medium term,” it added.
At the end of March 2023, the combined subscriber base of MTN Guinea-Bissau, MTN Guinea-Conakry, and MTN Liberia represented approximately 6.1 million of the Group’s total 291 million subscribers and contributed just 0.7% to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).
At the end of March 2023, MTN Guinea-Conakry had almost 3.2 million subscribers, MTN Liberia had just over 2 million and MTN Guinea-Bissau had just 871,000 subscribers.
At the end of March 2023, MTN Guinea-Bissau, MTN Guinea-Conakry, and MTN Liberia had a combined subscriber base of 6.1 million.
At the end of March 2023, MTN Guinea-Bissau, MTN Guinea-Conakry, and MTN Liberia had a combined subscriber base of 6.1 million. (Source: Image by wirestock on Freepik).
In West Africa, MTN also operates in Ghana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, and Nigeria – its biggest operation on the continent.
MTN’s West and Central Africa (WECA) region – which excludes Nigeria – reported service revenue growth of 10.8% in the first quarter of 2023, with overall subscribers up by 2.7% to 72.6 million.
MTN Nigeria’s service revenue grew by 20.4%, supported by growth across key revenue segments of voice, data, fintech, and digital services. Mobile subscribers in Nigeria also increased by 9.4% to 76.7 million.
This week, Connecting Africa reported that MTN was expanding its 5G network in Nigeria and managing network issues in Sudan and Cameroon.
Axian’s African aspirations
In April 2022, a consortium led by Madagascar-based Axian bought operator Tigo Tanzania in a deal worth $100 million. This was part of Millicom’s multi-year plan to divest its African operations and focus on its Latin American markets.
As of 2022, Axian had interests in 130 businesses across 48 countries, including 77 businesses across 28 countries in Africa.
In February 2023, Axian Group announced a new investment arm aimed at funding Africa’s fledgling technology startups.
Middle East exit strategy
Since August 2020, MTN has also been working toward an orderly exit out of the Middle East.
At the MTN Group results presentation in March 2023, Group CEO Ralph Mupita said that MTN was moving forward with plans to sell its Afghanistan business to Beirut-based M1 New Ventures for US$35 million.
“The process to exit Afghanistan in an orderly fashion through the sale of MTN’s entire shareholding to a wholly-owned subsidiary of M1 remains on track, with regulatory engagements well progressed,” the group said in the Q1 update.
It said the exit from Afghanistan is expected to be completed in the second financial half of 2023.
MTN had originally planned to sell the Syrian operation first, but later decided to abandon its telecom operation in Syria in August 2021, saying that the regulatory actions and demands in Syria had made operating in the country “untenable.”
This came after its Syrian business was placed under judicial guardianship in February 2021.
The Yemen business, meanwhile, was sold in November 2021 to the group’s minority shareholders in the country.
After the Afghanistan deal is finalized, the only Middle Eastern operation left will be MTN’s joint venture in Iran – MTN Irancell – of which it owns 49%.
MTN expands in Nigeria and Rwanda, battles outages in Sudan and Cameroon
Pan-African operator MTN has been making the news in different African countries for good and sometimes not-so-good reasons in recent times.
During MTN Group’s 2022 integrated report last week, the telco announced that it would be launching its own 4G mobile network in Rwanda by the end of June.
That announcement comes after the Rwandan government said it wanted to remove the exclusivity held by Korea Telecom Rwanda Networks (KTRN) since 2013 in the 4G infrastructure market.
The Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) said it was modifying KTRN’s license to allow other companies to deploy standalone 4G networks under revised technology-neutral permits.
MTN said the revision to its license is expected to be complete in May 2023 with its first 4G sites to go live by the end of the current quarter.
Currently, MTN, Airtel, and other Rwandan operators use the KTRN network on a wholesale basis.
MTN Nigeria expands 5G
In the West African country of Nigeria, MTN said it aims to cover 10% of the country’s population with its fifth-generation (5G) mobile network by the end of the year.
MTN further said it plans to accelerate investments in the deployment of 5G sites, to improve on its previous launch of 5G in seven cities namely Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Kano, Owerri, and Maiduguri in September 2022.
Moreover, by the end of 2022, the telco had deployed 588 5G sites in Nigeria’s major cities and aims to cover the whole territory by 2025.
MTN Cameroon fast-tracks investment plan
In response to recent protests in Cameroon over quality of service, MTN said it is fast-tracking the implementation of its 2023 network investment plan.
The company said it is committed to improving users’ experience following widespread complaints and protests over the quality of service in the country.
To express their displeasure with services rendered by telcos in Cameroon, subscribers switched their devices to “Flight Mode,” claiming they had been experiencing prolonged network disruptions in April 2023.
To remedy the situation, the Cameroonian government ordered Camtel, MTN and Orange to fix mobile services.
The MTN Group has been battling network outages in Sudan, and subscriber protests in Cameroon. (Source: MTN Group)
The MTN Group has been battling network outages in Sudan, and subscriber protests in Cameroon. (Source: MTN Group)
According to MTN Cameroon CEO Mitwa Ng’ambi, the telco is accelerating the implementation of its network investment plan.
“Over the last couple of weeks, we have listened diligently to the feedback you have provided us and we take it seriously. We strive to be at our best because you deserve only the best,” she said.
The 2023 network investment plan by MTN is also happening at a time when the telco has signed a collaboration framework agreement with the Rural Electrification Agency (AER) to supply its rural mobile sites with solar energy.
MTN Sudan working on restoring the network
Amid the conflict in Sudan, last Friday, the telco announced that it experienced a network shutdown after fighting in the country led to fuel shortages and power cuts.
The network outage comes at a time when the country is experiencing massive civil unrest due to fighting between military and paramilitary forces.
“The company fully understands the impact this may have on communication needs and extends its apologies for any inconvenience experienced during this challenging time,” the telco said in a statement.
