MTN Ghana, a leading telecommunication operator, has managed to reconnect 0.4 million SIMs out of 5.4 million that were permanently blocked for failing to re-register with the Ghana Card.
The number of blocked SIMs as of June 2023, which represents 92.6 per cent of blocked SIMs, has consequently contributed to a 1.6 per cent Year on Year (YoY) decrease in subscriber base.
As at the end of the first half of the year, MTN Ghana has 27.3 million subscribers compared to 27.7 million within the same period last year.
Mr Selorm Adadevoh, Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, made this known at the first Half of 2023 Investor Connect event.
The Company complied with a directive from the National Communications Authority (NCA) to block unregistered SIMs by May 31, 2023.
Since then, customers with active SIMs that had not been registered with the Ghana card were blocked from all transactions on MTN Ghana’s network from June 1, 2023.
Mr Adadevoh noted that though the full impact of the disconnection exercise on subscriber base would reflect 90-days post the disconnection date, the Company had already started to notice the impact on its revenue streams.
He observed, for instance, that the voice revenue contribution to total service revenue declined from 33.8 per cent to 29.1 per cent within the first half of the year.
He also indicated that there was a possibility of blocked subscribers returning to the network on new sim cards, adding that “we are seeing an increased growth of new additions to the business, which will suggest that a portion of customers that were disconnected are coming back with new sim cards”.
“What we are doing now is focusing on how to get back customers who were disconnected and ensure that they have access to connectivity.
“Some of these customers have multiple sims and have decided to consolidate so, we don’t have an expectation that all the 5.4 million have to come back for us to be whole again,” he said.
GNA