Telecommunications group MTN Ghana achieved a 20.4% quarter-on-quarter service revenue spike to GH¢1.4-billion, owing to double-digit growth in voice, data and mobile money (MoMo) revenue during the three months ended March 31.

During the quarter under review, voice growth climbed 16.6%, driven by an increase in the number of active subscribers, as well as various customer value management initiatives, which helped to manage churn and support use.

“MTN Ghana delivered a strong performance for the period, despite macroeconomic challenges arising in Ghana in the last month of the quarter from the global outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic,” the company said in an update to shareholders.

The group’s subscribers increased 6.2% to 23.9-million, while data subscribers increased 5.4% to 21.2-million during the first quarter.

A 19.4% increase in data revenue was attributable to growth in active data users and growth in the number of smartphones on the network, the company added.

Data revenue’s contribution to service revenue decreased marginally from 26.7% to 26.5%, while the contribution of voice to total service revenue decreased from 47.1% to 45.6% during the three months under review.

MoMo’s contribution to service revenue increased from 17.9% to 19.4%, as registered MoMo subscribers increased by 6.9% to 15.5-million.

MoMo revenue grew strongly at 30.4% on the back of the increase in subscribers, higher transactional activity of person-to-person and growth in more advanced services such as retail merchant payments and international remittances.

MTN Ghana’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) increased 34.5% to GH¢768-million during the three months to March, while the Ebitda margin was up by 5.5 percentage points to 53.4%.

“This margin improvement was a result of our cost efficiency initiatives underpinned by continued distribution efficiencies,” MTN Ghana explained.

“Our strong growth in revenue coupled with our cash management initiatives resulted in a strong growth of 62.1% in profit after tax and improved our cash generation from our operation by 12.5%.”

However, as the extent and economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic are uncertain, MTN Ghana expected the market conditions to be more challenging for the remainder of the financial year.

“We had started the year with a strong first quarter performance and optimism about the financial year 2020.

“However, given the uncertainty associated with the likely duration and related economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic calls for a more measured outlook in the near-term,” the group commented.

Further, the growth in data revenue, owing to work-from-home and school-from-home schemes, did not fully offset the slowdown in voice and MoMo revenue.