ABIDJAN (Reuters) – The Ivory Coast arm of MTN Group, Africa’s top telecommunications operator, expects revenue to rise 5%-10% in 2020 from last year’s 300 billion CFA francs ($545 million), the subsidiary’s chief executive told Reuters on Monday.
The company saw a 35% rise in internet traffic in the West African nation due to the coronavirus pandemic, said CEO Djibril Ouattara.
“We were able to adapt to remote working, we were able to adapt to COVID-19,” he said.
The company plans to invest 40 billion CFA francs this year and in the coming years to increase the reach and strength of its networks, after high demand for fast data services led to internet slowdowns in the commercial centre Abidjan in recent months.
The South African company is the number two operator in Ivory Coast – French-speaking West Africa’s largest economy – behind France’s Orange. MTN Cote d’Ivoire has around 12 million mobile phone and internet subscribers.
(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Alessandra Prentice and Chizu Nomiyama)
