In business, MTN, Dangote Cement, 11 Others Outpaced Headwinds, Generated N9.44tn Revenue in 2023

Thirteen companies quoted on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) survived macro economic challenges in 2023 to generate N9.44 trillion revenue, representing an increase of 30.5 per cent from N7.23 trillion reported 2022.

Analysis of the companies’ results showed that MTN Nigeria Communication Plc generated the highest revenue in the period under review, followed by Dangote Cement Plc.

Companies operating in Nigeria last year were faced with low purchasing amid hike inflation that spread across Africa, foreign exchange crisis, insecurity and bad road networks that prolonged delivery of goods and services across the country.

The 13 companies investigated by THISDAY cut-across cement producing companies, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), petroleum marketing companies, household companies and telecommunication company.

A breakdown showed that MTN Nigeria reported N2.47 trillion revenue in 2023, representing an increase of 23 per cent from N2.01 trillion in 2022, Dangote Cement earned N2.21 trillion revenue in 2023, a growth of 366.44 per cent from N1.62 trillion reported in 2022.

MTN Nigeria generated revenue from data, voice, Fintech, Digital, among others.

The telecommunication giant in a statement said “The demand for our services has remained resilient despite the overall challenging operating conditions. Service revenue was up by 22.4per cent, in line with our medium-term growth guidance, with pleasing growth acceleration in Q4 (up 25per cent). Data was the main driver, with voice growth remaining solid. Our mobile subscribers increased by 5.3per cent to 79.7 million, underpinned by increased gross connections and churn management initiatives.

“Our Voice revenue increased by 9.7per cent, benefitting from the mobile subscriber base growth and increased usage on the back of our customer value management initiatives and revamped voice propositions. However, growth in Q4 was 7.1per cent from a high base in the prior year.

“We recorded pleasing growth of 39.8 per cent (up 48.7 per cent in Q4) in data revenue supported by a revamp of our data bundle offerings – particularly in Q4 – as well as the significant investment in our network coverage and capacity. Our 4G network now covers 81.5 per cent of the population, up from 79.1 per cent in December 2022, and 5G at 11.3 per cent.

“On the back of these initiatives, smartphone penetration rose to 55.6 per cent (up 3.1pp YoY), underpinning data usage (GB per user) growth of 29.1 per cent to 8.6GB. As a result, we recorded a 44.9 per cent growth in data traffic, with the 4G network accounting for 81.8 per cent of the total traffic (up 0.6pp YoY) and 5G at 5.2 per cent.

“We expanded home broadband penetration to support the growing use cases for digital adoption, leveraging our 5G fixed wireless access devices, mobile broadband solutions, and fibre-to-the-home connectivity. We added over 800k subscribers in 2023, bringing our home broadband subscribers to over 2 million. Our infrastructural strength, technology mix and partnerships position us to capture a significant share of market opportunities.”

For Dangote Cement, the growth in revenue was on the backdrop of garnering more market share across the continent with pan-Africa volumes going up by 12.7 per cent to 11.3 metric tons.

BUA Foods for instance announced N728.5 billion revenue in 2023, a growth of 74 per cent from N418.35 billion in 2023, while Totalenergies Marketing Nigeria declared N635.95 billion revenue in 2023, a growth of 31.8 per cent from N482.47 billion in 2022.

Seplat Energy reported N696.87 billion revenue in 2023, an increase of 73 per cent from N403.9 billion reported in 2022.

Others are: NB Plc posted N599.64 billion revenue in 2023, an increase of nine per cent from N550.64 billion in 2022; Nestle Nigeria announced N547.12 billion revenue in 2023, a growth of 22. 45 per cent from N446.82 billion in 2022; Lafarge Africa declared N405.5 billion revenue in 2023, aa growth of 8.6 per cent from N373 billion and BUA Cement reported N459.99billion revenue in 2023, representing 27 per cent increase from N360.99 billion in 2022.

In addition, Geregu Power declared N82.91 billion revenue in 2023, a 74 per cent growth from N47.62 billion in 2022 while Cadbury Nigeria in 2023 posted N80.38 billion revenue in 2023, a growth of 46 per cent from N55.2 billion reported in 2022 and Nascon Allied Industries disclosed N80.83 billion revenue in 2023, a growth of 37 per cent from N58.79 billion in 2022.

However, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) foreign exchange policy and operating expenses impacted negatively on some of these companies profit before tax, leading to none payment of dividend to shareholders.

Cumulatively, the 13 companies declared N485.25 billion profit before tax in n2023 from N1.54 trillion reported in 2022 financial year.

Reacting, analysts stated that the mixed 2023 performance was attributable to a combination of factors such as revaluation losses and hike in cost of operations amid double-digit inflation rate.

The CEO, Wyoming Capital & Partners, Mr. Tajudeen Olayinka said: “The performance of 2023 results is mixed while some have very good results, others were faced with CBN naira revaluation policy that impacted their bottom-line. The likely factors responsible for some of the companies’ low performance may be the combination of falling of naira value and rising of overhead cost due to the fact that they increased staff salaries.”

On his part, Analyst and Managing Director, High Cap Securities Limited, David Adonri stated that: “Nigeria’s economy is revering from post-election spending and we have witnessed some challenges including hike in inflation, security, among other factors that have continued to have mixed reactions on revenue generation.

“Some companies negative growth returns, in comparison to the hyperinflation bedeviling the economy, are fallout of the general weakness of the nation’s socioeconomic fundamentals.”

In addition, Analyst and Chief Operating Officer of InvestData Consulting Limited, Mr. Ambrose Omordion said: “Year on year “(YoY) performance of listed companies will always be mixed in the sense that all companies cannot continue to report impressive numbers as there will be periods where policies and the economic situation will be favourable to some and unfavourable to the others.”

Continuing, he said: “In my view, the industrial sector was already coming from a low base due to the lower level of activity reported for first quarter of 2023 due to the tension towards the 2023 general elections.”