MTN Nigeria Set to Pay Shareholders Dividends after Recording N205.2Bn Profit in 2020

MTN Nigeria Communications Plc announced this morning that its Board of Directors proposed to pay shareholders a final dividend of N5.90 for every 2 kobo ordinary share held by them. This brings the total dividends the telco would be paying out for the year ended December 2020 to N9.40.

Payment of the dividends will be subject to appropriate withholding tax. It will be paid electronically on the 26th of May to shareholders whose names appear on the Registrar of Members latest May 4th, 2020.

MTN Nigeria’s dividend announcement followed the disclosure of the company’s audited FY 2020 financial statement. The financial report, which Business Elites Africa obtained from the Nigerian Stock Exchange website, showed a positive but rather subdued performance as you can see below:

• MTN’s operating revenue for the period under review rose to N1.3 trillion, indicating a 15.1% increase when compared to N1.1 trillion that was recorded during the comparable period of 2019.
• Profit before Tax increased by 2.6% to N298.8 billion, compared to N291.2 billion in 2019.
• Profit after Tax stood at N205.2 billion, marking a very slight 0.9% increase compared to N203.3 billion that was reported by the company in 2019.
• EBITDA Margin, however, declined by 2.5 percentage points to 50.9%.

While commenting on the financial statement, the company’s outgoing Chief Executive Officer, Ferdi Moolman, said “2020 was a challenging year for all. The unprecedented disruption that the COVID-19 pandemic caused the businesses and people we serve, challenged us in new and demanding ways. The impact continues to evolve. Adoption of our data and digital services accelerated as lockdowns and gathering restrictions were imposed and work-from-home became the norm for many…” 

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Note that MTN is the leading mobile telecommunication service provider in Nigeria. The company which was listed on the Nigerian bourse in 2019, saw its market capitalisation jump by 61.8% to N3.4 trillion in 2020, as against N2.1 trillion back in 2019. During the year under review, active mobile subscribers on the MTN network increased by 12.2 million new users to 76.5 million. Active data users also increased by 7.4 million to 32.6 million.