Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) is betting on its soon to be launched Mobile Financial Services (MFS) business to drive growth for the company going forward.
This comes amid concern as to where the growth of the company will come from when listed, with mobile penetration in the country at 112% and it having a dominant 90% market share, with 2,469 active sims on the its network.
An optimistic Dr Licky Erastus, Managing Directors of the business pointed to growth prospects of MFS, where MTC plans to become the first mobile operator in Namibia to introduce the service, through its subsidiary, Windhoek General Administrators (Pty) Ltd (WGA).
The use of WGA aims to comply with requirements and guidelines of the Bank of Namibia with regards to e-money issuers in Namibia
“With the objective to fully unlock payment solutions to the underserved and unbanked population, MTC aims to leverage off its mature distribution channel to setup mobile agents throughout the country.”
The company plans to leverage on the surge in the usage of mobile money platforms, with over N$40 billion having moved through e-money platforms such as eWallet, easyWallet and Blue Wallet and other similar banking services in 2020.
According to MTC, since the COVID-19 pandemic, the value has increased by 177%, more than the growth in value pushed by bank cards and electronic transfers.
MTC estimate that at least 40% of MTC’s subscribers will make use of MTC’s mobile money, generating an estimated 15% of MTC’s total revenue within 5 years.
On data, the company is looking at driving the growth and contribution of data services, which is supported by the upgrade of its base stations to 4G and offering lowly priced smartphones.
“MTC is transitioning from a legacy voice-, SMS-, data- only service provider to that of a digital service provider, which puts MTC on an advantageous trajectory to leverage this data for the benefit of its customers.”
MTC recently embarked on establishing a drive for digital, content services, value-adding services and enterprise solutions (B2B and B2C). A drive towards monetising digitalization has been one of the largest drivers for revenue and sustainable business for African telecommunications operators. By making use of its current data-enabled network, MTC aims to monetize this capacity with the introduction of smart partnerships to avail services, such as on-demand video and gaming, through which a sustainable growth in revenue will be delivered.
Data Traffic usage on the MTC network has increased exponentially with an average increase of 51% year-on-year for the last five (5) years to 65 million GB in 2020.
By 31 May 2021 the company had recorded a 15% year-on-year data traffic growth.
