Leading telecommunication firm, MTN Ghana says it continue to engage government and other regulatory stakeholders on the implementation of the Electronic Transaction Levy and working on its system readiness for implementation.
This is however subject to the passage of the tax which has witnessed back and forth as the Minority in Parliament have vehemently opposed it.
In its 2021 Financial Statement, MTN Ghana, said though it acknowledges the impact of the proposed levy on its customers, it has committed to reducing fees on P2P transactions by 25% upon implementation of the E-Levy to lessen the overall impact on consumers
On 17 November 2021, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta presented the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Ghana, introducing a levy on electronic transactions to widen the tax net.
The 1.75% e-Levy will cover electronic transactions on Mobile Money, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances. The levy when approved will be borne by the sender, except for inward remittances, in which case the levy will be borne by the receiver.
MTN records ¢2bn profit in 2021
Meanwhile, MTN Ghana recorded ¢2 billion profit in 2021, an increase of 43.5% over the previous year.
According to the 2021 Financial Statement, data revenue grew by 56.3% year-on-year to GH ¢2.769 billion.
This was a result of increased data traffic (+54.9%) owing to various commercial interventions, improvements to the network, changes in consumer usage behaviour and increased smartphones on the network (+10.6%).
The contribution of data to service revenue also increased from 29.6% to 36.0% year-on-year in line with its revenue diversification strategy.
Active Mobile Money users recovered from the challenges in the first half of 2021 to achieve a growth of 3.8% year-on-year.
Growth in Mobile Money advanced service offerings such as retail merchant payments, micro loans, insurance, and international remittances supported an increase in MoMo revenue by 38.2% year-to-year to GH ¢1.734 billion. Importantly, the contribution of Mobile Money to service revenue increased from 20.9% in 2020 to 22.5% in 2021.
Digital revenue however declined by 5.1% in 2021 to GH¢200 million.
During the period, the company embarked on a cleanup of its digital products and services to enhance transparency to customers, improved its digital messaging channels and added more value to the music and gaming offerings to meet the entertainment needs of customers. These helped grew its active digital subscribers by 1.1 million to 4.2 million in the period.
Board recommends ¢0.085 dividend to shareholders
Due to the sterling performance, the board recommended a final dividend of ¢0.085 per share, bringing the total dividend for 2021 to ¢0.115 per share.
This represents 70.6% of profit after tax and a 43.8% increase in dividend per share when compared to the prior period.