Directors of the Telecom giant MTN have hinted that they would recommend a final dividend of Ghs0.03 per share for the 2018 financial year.
This would be at the upcoming annual general meeting of the shareholders. The value MTN’s ordinary shares on issue as at the date of this declaration is over 12.3 billion. For an investor to qualify for the recommended dividend, they should have been registered as a shareholder by 30th April 2019. Considering the original share price offer of Ghs0.75 during the IPO, if an investor purchased the shares at that time they benefit from dividend per share rate of 3.8%. However as at 1st March 2019, the share price was Ghs0.74.
The payment of dividend is on the back of a strong business performance and growth in revenues at all service offering fronts. Total service revenue grew by 23.5% from data, voice and digital revenue (mobile money).
In all, MTN subscriber base increased by 12.7% from 2017 to 20.1 million subscribers in 2018. This still makes them the number one telecoms operator in Ghana. The year 2019 has been declared as the ‘year of the customer’. Activities within the 2018 financial year that may support this mantra is the over 600 2G sites, 1,100 3G sites and 250 4G sites that were rolled out within the year. The expansion activities could have led to the profound growth of the subscriber base. However, ghanatalksbusiness.com analyst desk is of the view that achieving the ‘year of the customer’ objective in 2019, would depend greatly on building the human and internal structures that would make customers perceive easier and quicker accessibility to customer service reps, shorter time for resolving issues and prompt feedback on complains.
According to the company, dividends would be paid on 15th May 2019 into the accounts of the shareholders or better still in the momo accounts of shareholders who use the facility.
Investors can also make extra income if their share price appreciates in value and can be sold at a higher share price.
