Wine not? 🍷
2020 was a good year for the Nigerian Telecoms industry, MTN and its subsidiaries, Which African country drinks wine the most?
Hello there,
Welcome to a new month and congratulations to West African nation Burkina Faso for winning its first Olympics medal — a bronze in the men’s triple jump. 🥳️
2020 was a good year for the Nigerian Telecoms industry
Yes, it was.
Why?
Total revenue rose by 12% in 2020, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s recently released 2020 Subscribers/Network Data Report.
The cause = Pandemic induced Lockdown
Lockdown = Work from home
Work from home = meetings, online seminars, workshops and masterclasses
Work from home = Increase in time spent on Youtube and Netflix
You get the gist.
Internet subscriptions: The number of active internet subscriptions increased by 22.5% from 125.98 million in December 2019 to 154.29 million in December 2020.
Revenue: The telecoms industry reported a collective revenue of ₦2.889 trillion ($7.05 billion) compared to ₦2.516 trillion ($6.14 billion) made in 2019.
On the downside, Capital inflow (Foreign Direct Investment) into the Nigerian Telecoms
Industry reduced in 2020 by 55.7% to $417 million from $942 million in 2019.
Other notable stats
Telecom towers: The top five states with the highest number of telecom towers are Lagos, Ogun, Oyo Rivers and FCT while the states with the least number of base stations are: Jigawa, Ebonyi, Gombe, Yobe and Zamfara. The more telecom towers a state has in relation to the population, the better the telecom service.
Port-in/out: Telecom subscribers can move (port) from one telco to another. This typically indicates how satisfied subscribers are with service providers.
Port-in: EMTS (9 mobile) had the most number of subscribers joining it from other telcos, while Glo had the least.
Port-out: Airtel had the most number of subscribers leaving it to join other telcos while EMTS (9 mobile) had the least.
Dig Deeper: Read the 2020 subscriber/network data report.[PDF]
MTN and its subsidiaries
South Africa based MTN Group has a lot on its plate right now.
What’s happening?
Nigeria: It recently just moved $280m, its 2020 dividend, out of Nigeria. Earlier on, MTN was forced to suspend dividend payout for the 2020 financial year. For many months it has been struggling to get dividends out of its subsidiaries due to the challenges of securing foreign currency in Nigeria and some other markets where it operates.
Afghanistan and Dubai: MTN hinted that It’s making “positive developments” in a United States court case related to the group and its subsidiaries, MTN Afghanistan and MTN Dubai.
MTN, along with a number of other Western businesses, was accused on 27 December 2019 in a US court by 400 US service members and civilians, and their families, of having violated the Anti-Terrorism Act by paying protection money to the Taliban.
Yemen and Syria: The group is currently selling its 75% stake in MTN Syria as it looks to exit the middle east market over the next three to five years, with a plan to fully focus on core African markets.
As a result of this, MTN has told investors to expect between 75% to 85% drop in profit or earnings per share (EPS). The group’s complete half-year results are expected to be released on August 12.
South Africa: As a result of the recent riot in South Africa, MTN alone reported damage to over 100 of its base stations which the company’s technicians could not safely reach the sites to repair.
Moral lesson: Tough times are inevitable in business.
Which African country drinks wine the most?
“Beer is made by men, wine by God.”
― Martin Luther
Martin Luther surely echoes the sentiment of many about wine - a drink saved for important occasions.
When you think of wine consumption patterns, Africa’s most populous countries ― Nigeria (206 million), Ethiopia (114 million) and Egypt (102 million) — first come to mind but a recent report by market intelligence firm Sagaci research begs to differ.
The breakdown: Togo takes first place in terms of wine consumption, followed closely behind by Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire, each scoring 26%, 25% and 23% respectively, of the nation’s adult population having consumed wine in the last four weeks.
Although Togo is not the continent’s largest consumer of wine in terms of volume, a greater proportion of its adult population consumes wine than in other African nations.
In countries like Zimbabwe and South Africa, females consumed more wine than men.
Zoom out: 8 out of the top 10 wine-consuming nations in Africa have a common history with France — countries colonised by France, one of the world’s largest wine producers.
Disclaimer: The research was carried out in 29 countries of the 54 African countries, so it’s clearly not truly representative of all African countries.
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Quote 💭
“The shortest route to getting things done is just do it.”
— Toshihiro Kawabata.