Rwanda telecom MTN Rwanda and Bralirwa, a beer and soft drinks maker, defied the Covid-19 market disruptions to post strong earnings.
The voice calls sales growth was boosted by widespread acquisition touchpoints, rural telephony initiatives, and revamped acquisition offers which helped in retaining and recruiting new customers.
Rwanda telecom MTN Rwanda and Bralirwa, a beer and soft drinks maker, defied the Covid-19 market disruptions to post strong earnings.
According to Bralirwa’s half-year results to June 30, 2021 financial statement, the company recorded a revenue increase of 27.5 per cent to Rwf56.8 billion (56.3 million) from Rwf44.6 billion ($44.4 million) the previous year.
The statement attributes the increase to intentional route to consumer sales model that targeted off-premise channels such as supermarkets and grocery stores which ensured the beers and soft drinks manufactured by the company reach the customers on time.
“Despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the measures that are in place to slow down the spread of the virus, Bralirwa Plc has been able to perform well,” Merid Demissie, vice chairman of the board and managing director of Bralirwa said in the statement made public on August 5, 2021.
Bralirwa reported Rwf6.4 billion ($6.4 million) profit in the first six months to June 30, 2021, from Rwf3.9 billion ($3.9 million) reported in the same period in 2020, helped by strong growth in volume of the beer and soda sales.
According to Bralirwa, the outlook of the beer and soft drinks market in Rwanda remains positive with the expected relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions.
The company said it will continue leveraging on the route-to-market and effective allocation of commercial firepower to remain a market leader.
An August 2 statement issued by MTN Rwanda indicates its earnings increased to Rwf88.3 billion ($89.1 million) during half-year period to June 31 earnings, a 30.1 per cent solid growth, from Rwf67.8 billion ($68.4 million), reported in the first six months to June 31, 2020.
According to the telecom’s financial statement, both the data and voices sales boosted revenue growth. Voice raked in with raking in Rwf41.5 billion ($41.8 million) while data generated Rwf15.5 billion ($15.6 million).
The voice calls sales growth was boosted by widespread acquisition touchpoints, rural telephony initiatives, and revamped acquisition offers which helped in retaining and recruiting new customers.
The financial statement further noted that the decision at the start of the year to allow the use of any voice bundle to call other mobile networks in Rwanda at no additional cost helped the generate more income. For data, MTN says the combination of increased subscribers, usage (MB per user) and ultimately traffic, supported by increased network capacity boosted MTN Rwanda’s data sales.
Data traffic rose by 35 per cent YoY with and data revenue accounting for 18 of service revenue.
The Fintech revenue also recorded strong YoY growth of 80 per cent.
The three months zero-rated person-to-person (P2P) transactions to boost cashless payments to limit the spread of COVID-19 boosted the teleco’s mobile money earnings.
Combined in the first six months this year, the teleco service revenue grew by 29.3 per cent to hit Rwf86.5 billion ($87.2 million) from Rwf66.9 billion ($67.4 million) half-year ending June 30, 2020.
MTN Rwanda overall financial position of the Company remains solid with the total assets increasing from Rwf288.7 billion ($286.4 million to Rwf295.1 billion ($292.7 million) representing a 2.2 per cent growth.
“The easing of lockdown measures supported our overall performance, with voice revenue up by 16.1 per cent and data revenue 24.6 per cent higher in the first half of 2021.
