
MTN Group added 3.5 million new subscribers in the third quarter and now serves 244 million customers in 21 markets. In the nine months to 30 September, service revenue grow 9.6 percent and its EBITDA margin improved by 0.6 percent to 35.1 percent. It added 4.7 million active data users to 87.0 million, and 2.2 million Mobile Money subscribers to 31.7 million.
MTN said its Ayoba messaging platform is now available in five markets and is recording 515,000 active users per month.
The group said solid performances in Nigeria and Ghana offset headwinds in South Africa, which was hit by weaker consumer demand and changes in ICASA's End User Subscriber Service Charter Regulations, affecting out-of-bundle (OOB) usage.
In June, MTN had not recognised ZAR 393 million of unpaid revenue from its roaming agreement with Cell C, and an impairment of ZAR 211 million had also been raised. Since the end of June, Cell C has made payments amounting to nearly ZAR 750 million, in line with an agreed plan. MTN has continued its conservative accounting for the Cell C roaming contract and only payments received during the third quarter were processed, and all against the outstanding balances as in June.