MTN attributes 1.2% revenue decline to Nigerian challenge

MTN Nigeria has attributed its 1.2 per cent revenue decline in the third quarter of 2016 to some of the regulatory challenges it is facing in the country. The decline came after a 6.2 per cent decline in the first quarter of the year. The company said that despite the challenges, its business performance in markets such as Nigeria is improving.
MTN Group executive chairman, Phuthuma Nhleko, who spoke on the development, said “After reporting a year-on-year decline in revenue in the first and second quarter of 2016 of 6.2% and 3.3 per cent respectively, in the third quarter, MTN Nigeria’s revenue year-on-year decline was limited to 1.2 per cent as the business continued to experience incremental improvements in revenues.”
MTN Group shares also nosedived recently after allegations that the company ‘illegally’ moved almost $14billion out of Nigeria since 2006. In the interim, MTN Group Executive Chairman, Phuthuma Nhleko, has been running MTN, which operates across Africa and the Middle East and has over 200 million subscribers.
“With the completion of my two key mandates of settling the Nigerian regulatory fine and appointing a new Group President and CEO, I will revert to my role as non-executive chairman as soon as Rob assumes his position as Group President and CEO on 13 March 2017,” Nhleko said in a quarterly update published by the company.
“In the interim, whilst I will continue as executive chairman to provide oversight, I will delegate more operational responsibilities to Gunter Engling, acting CFO and Stephen Van Coller, VP M&A and Strategy. I will also ensure that all outstanding senior management appointments are completed and the new senior management team is fully settled in before year end,” said Nhleko.
Shuter is the current CEO of the European Cluster at Vodafone Group. He previously held senior management roles at Vodacom Group, Standard Bank and Nedbank prior to joining Vodafone Group.