Nigeria’s largest telecommunications firm MTN says it will continue to invest in improved world class services and its network, accelerating the expansion of its 4G coverage and providing home broadband.
To this end the Telco has announced plans to invest up to N600 billion over the next 3-Years to expand broadband access in the country.
“As part of our rural connectivity programme, we plan to connect approximately 1,000 rural communities to our network this year with additional 2,000 communities in 2022,” MTN Nigeria said.
“In the next 3 years, we will invest over N600 billion to expand broadband access across the country in support of Government’s Broadband Plan.”
MTN Nigeria’s mobile subscribers closed the first half (H1) of 2021 at 68.9 million, down 9.9 percent from December 2020.
This was due to the regulatory restrictions on new SIM sales and activations, which was lifted on 19 April 2021.
Although the initial run-rate of additions has been slower than usual due to new process requirements, MTN anticipate growth to normalise in the short-term as more acquisition centres are certified for SIM registration.
The Board of Directors have also approved an interim dividend of N4.55 kobo per share to be paid out of distributable net income.
“This represents a growth of 30% over N3.50 kobo per share paid in H1 2020,” MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola said.