MTN Nigeria Communication Plc said it paid the sum of N543.9 billion in taxes and levies to the Nigerian government in 2023.
The company disclosed this in its 2023 sustainability report released over the weekend, which highlights its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices. In addition, MTN said it was able to expand its network coverage to cover 92.9% of the country’s landscape.
The technology company added that it also increased its investment in capital expenditure by 13.2% to N571 billion in 2023.
Per the company’s financial result, MTN Nigeria posted N2.46 trillion as revenue for the full year 2023. However, it recorded a loss after tax of N137 billion driven by net forex losses.
In a filing with the NGX, MTN’s CEO, Karl Toriola, said the company’s Sustainability Report, highlights the company’s commitment to creating shared value for all its stakeholders.
“We are proud of the progress we have made so far, expanding connectivity to 79.7 million people, achieving 92.9 percent nationwide coverage, and investing N2.6 billion in corporate social investment programs that have impacted over 58,000 lives through the MTN Foundation, contributing N549.3 billion in taxes and levies to the government and investing N571.0 billion in capex, up 13.2% in 2023” Toriola stated.
Toriola added that MTN’s sustainability strategy revolves around four principles of eco-responsibility, sustainable societies, sound governance, and economic value-added.
According to him, MTN’s 4G coverage grew by 2.4 percentage point from 79.1% in 2022 to 81.5% in 2023, while 5G coverage grew by 8.1 percentage points from 3.2% in 2022 to 11.3% in 2023. With this, Toriola said the company has increased its percentage of the market share to 52.1% in 2023 from 50.8% in 2022.
“We are leading in the provision of connectivity and access to millions of Nigerians. Our efforts on financial inclusion in Nigeria have also been successful. Through our fintech business, we serve over 14.5 million customers in all the local governments across the country,” he said.
While MTN was able to increase its capex by 13.2% in 2023 to expand 4G and 5G networks, the company as well as other telecom operators is currently battling with a significant drop in the value of the Naira between last December and now, which may affect their further investment this year.