MTN Ghana, the publicly listed telecoms company, says it will invest heavily in customer-centric innovation and increase capital expenditure to optimise network performance and drive growth this year and beyond.

With the pain of the Covid-19 pandemic being felt across all sectors of the economy, chief executive officer of the company Selorm Adadevoh said the company was monitoring the situation and will explore multiple scenarios to mitigate the impact of the virus on the business.

“To maintain our relevance and to keep up with the dynamism of the telecommunications industry, we will continue to innovate, create and build meaningful relationships that will improve customer experience and brighten lives. Our focus on the customer is paramount and drives continuous innovation as we transition from a traditional mobile telecommunications operator to an emerging digital operator,” he said in the 2019 annual report of the company released to the Ghana Stock Exchange.

“We will continue to drive down our operational cost while efficiently investing in capital expenditure to optimise network performance,” he added.

MTN Ghana increased its profit for the 2019 business year by 33.6 percent, recording an impressive GH¢1.01bn in profit after tax.

Underpinning this performance, the company said, was strong service revenue growth coupled with the successful execution of the company’s cost-efficient strategies.

Its service revenue increased by 22.8 percent, attributable to growth in revenue from voice, data and mobile money (MoMo).

Voice revenue went up by 19.4 percent, driven by an 11.2 percent increase in the number of active subscribers, success of various customer value management (CVM) initiatives, and continued improvements on the company’s network.

Data revenue grew by 32.5 percent, owing to a 26 percent growth in active data users, growth in the number of smartphones on the network, and an increase in data usage.

Mobile Money (MoMo) revenue continued to grow strongly, increasing by 28 percent year-on-year to GH¢0.96 billion and contributing 18.6 percent of service revenue.

The board of the company has recommended a final dividend of 4 pesewas per share, bringing the total dividend for the 2019 financial year to 6 pesewas per share, which is a 20 percent increase over 2018.