In Q2 2023, MTN Nigeria made 71% less profit than it did in Q1 2023, with PBT dropping from ₦156b to ₦45b. It then declined further by 28% to ₦32 billion in Q3. Here are the telco's profits before tax since Q1 2019.
In 2022, MTN Group spent ZAR 12.7b paying salaries and incurring other staff costs (an 8.1% increase from 2021), amounting to about 6.1% of its total revenue (ZAR 207b). After accounting for staff costs, they still pocketed ZAR 194b - 93.9% of the revenue for the year.
South Africa's broadband internet is the most affordable among the 25 African countries surveyed. Subscribers would work 1 hour 43 minutes to afford the country’s cheapest broadband internet.
Surfshark's 2023 Digital Quality of Life (DQL) Index surveyed Internet affordability and four other key factors influencing the digital well-being of 121 countries, including 25 from Africa. Per the finding, Angola leads Africa in terms of Internet affordability in 2023.
In the past seven years, 9mobile has experienced a consistent decline in its Internet subscriber base, with an average loss of 134k subscribers monthly since June 2016. This decline began after it reached 17.2 million subscribers — its highest ever — in April 2016. As of July 2023, 9mobile's Internet subscriber count was 3.9m. MTN had the largest share (68.1m) of Nigeria's 159m Internet subscribers as of July 2023. Glo and Airtel had almost equal shares, with 43.9m and 42.9m subscribers, respectively.
Global average broadband Internet speed, according to Cable.co.uk, has risen from 7.41mbps in 2017 to 46.79mbps in 2023. Similarly, Nigeria's average broadband Internet speed increased 561% from 3.15Mbps in 2017. What is your current Internet download speed? Comment below.
Deliberate Internet and social media shutdowns from Jan to Jul 2023 have cost the affected economies an estimated $2.1 billion combined, with Ethiopia the most affected. Asian and sub-Saharan African countries are the hardest hit.