Africa’s biggest telecommunications operator MTN Group on Monday reported a 72.3% tumble in full-year profit as a sharp devaluation in the Nigerian naira pushed its biggest unit MTN Nigeria to a loss.
South Africa-headquartered MTN said its headline earnings per share fell to $0.16 for the year ended on 31 December, from a restated $0.60 a year earlier.
Nigeria’s central bank in June adopted new forex rules that MTN said had since led to an approximately 96.7% devaluation in the exchange rate to $0.67 by the end of December.
Adjusted headline earnings per share declined by 9.5% to $0.63.
MTN, with 295 million customers in 19 African markets, declared a final divided of $0.17/share and said its group service revenue grew by 6.9% to $11.107 billion.
