MTN Nigeria’s half-year profit weakens 29%

Nigeria’s biggest company by market value MTN Nigeria saw its bottom line for the first half of 2022 take a bashing from a recent weakening of the local currency by as much as 40 per cent last month.

The development left the company’s net profit 29.1 per cent weaker than the level it was a year ago.

That was despite reporting its biggest revenue on record, due to a boom in income from data. Revenue accelerated to N1.2 trillion during the period from N950.1 billion.

Costs, without accounting for taxation and finance expenses, galloped by nearly one quarter to N737.2 billion, fuelled by Nigeria’s intractable inflation, which is leading businesses to pass costs to clients.

Finance costs jumped 161.8 per cent to N237.6 billion on the back of a dramatic spike in net foreign exchange loss, which ballooned by more than nine times the figure for the same period of last year.