MTN : Quarterly trading update for the period ended 31 March 2023

MTN Group Limited

(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa) (Registration number 1994/009584/06) (Share code MTN)

(ISIN: ZAE000042164)

(MTN or the Company or the Group)

Quarterly update for the period ended 31 March 2023

MTN is a pan-African mobile operator with the strategic intent of 'Leading digital solutions for Africa's progress'. We have 291 million customers in 19 markets and are inspired by our belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life.

Highlights

• Group service revenue grew by 15.6% (15.1%*), supported by:
• • voice revenue growth of 6.6% (4.7%*);
  • data revenue up by 26.9% (27.6%*); and
  • acceleration in fintech revenue of 11.5% (17.9%*).
• Total subscribers increased by 5.2% to 290.6 million.
• Active data subscribers up by 11.9% to 140.4 million.
• Active Mobile Money (MoMo) users up by 5.2% to 61.7 million.
• Data traffic increased by 19.3% to 3 221.26 PB.
• Fintech transaction volumes increased by 38.8% to 4.1 billion.

• Constant currency information after accounting for the impact of the pro forma adjustments as defined.

				% change
			% change	constant
Rm	1Q 23	1Q 22	reported	currency
Group service revenue	52 831	45 697	15.6%	15.1%
- South Africa	10 108	9 974	1.3%	1.3%
- Nigeria	21 744	17 308	25.6%	20.4%
Group EBITDA^	24 264	22 335	8.6%	11.0%
- South Africa	4 554	4 889	-6.9%	-6.9%
- Nigeria	11 627	9 475	22.7%	17.7%
Group EBITDA margin	43.7%	46.4%	-2.7 pp	-1.6 pp
- South Africa	36.1%	39.9%	-3.8 pp	-3.8 pp
- Nigeria	53.3%	54.6%	-1.3 pp	-1.3 pp
Capex (ex-leases)	6 375	7 048	-9.5%
- Capex intensity	11.5%	14.7%

^Excludes gain on disposal of SA towers (R16 million) and impairment of Afghanistan PPE and intangibles (R181 million).

Unless otherwise stated, financial and non-financial growth rates are presented on a constant currency basis and are year-on-year (YoY, 3M to March 2023 versus 3M to March 2022).

Service revenue excludes device and SIM card revenue. Data revenue is mobile and fixed access data and excludes roaming and wholesale. Fintech includes MoMo, insurance, airtime lending and e-commerce. Active data users are a count of all subscribers at a point in time which had a revenue generating event in the specified period (90 days) prior to that point in time and during the past 30 days had data usage greater than or equal to five megabytes. MoMo users are 30-day active users.

Quarterly update for the period ended 31 March 2023 1

Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita comments:

Navigating a difficult operating environment

"MTN's resilient business model and operational execution enabled us to continue to successfully navigate difficult macroeconomic, geopolitical and regulatory conditions in Q1 2023.

The blended inflation across our footprint remained elevated and averaged 18.5% in Q1 2023, compared to 11.5% in Q1 2022. Interest rates increased during the period as central banks acted to curb inflation. Higher inflation and interest rates weighed on consumers' spending power and impacted business activity.

Local currencies generally weakened against the dollar, and foreign exchange availability was limited in several of our key markets affecting the pace of capital expenditure and our ability to upstream dividends and management fees.

Over and above reduced economic activity in South Africa, MTN South Africa's (MTN SA) network availability remained under pressure due to ongoing power outages across the country: there were approximately 90 days of loadshedding in Q1 2023 compared to 14 days in Q1 2022.

Solid operational execution

Against this challenging backdrop we continued to implement proactive measures to sustain top-line growth and mitigate against inflationary pressures. In support of these interventions, we invested R6.4 billion in our networks and platforms in Q1. This to support the structurally higher demand we see in our markets for data (traffic up 19.3% YoY) and fintech (transaction volumes up 38.8% YoY).

MTN SA advanced the comprehensive network resilience plan, with improving network availability as we exited the quarter. The teams upgraded additional sites with batteries and started piloting solar solutions on a limited number of sites as well as deploying additional security solutions where there is high risk of theft or vandalism.

Overall service revenue grew by 15.1%* and was in line with our medium-term target. MTN Nigeria, MTN Ghana and MTN Uganda delivered double-digit service revenue growth. MTN SA delivered positive service revenue growth (up 1.3%) against the severe impacts of loadshedding in the quarter.

Group EBITDA increased by 11.0%*, with an EBITDA margin of 43.9%* (Q1 2022: 45.5%*) that was impacted by higher inflation across our markets in addition to increased costs associated with site rollouts in Nigeria and Ghana, as well as our network resilience plan in South Africa. We remained focused on our expense efficiency programme to contain the effects of higher inflation in the period.

Our Q1 results were underpinned by solid commercial execution, which drove growth of 5.2% in our overall subscriber base to 290.6 million, despite headwinds such as loadshedding in South Africa and SIM registration in Ghana. Active data subscribers and MoMo users were up 11.9% (to 140.4 million) and 5.2% (to 61.7 million) respectively.

Balance sheet and liquidity positions

The Group leverage of 0.3x as at 31 March 2023 (31 December 2022: 0.3x) remained comfortably within our

loans covenant limit. Holding company (Holdco) leverage - while slightly up to 0.9x (31 December 2022: 0.8x) due mainly to foreign exchange movements - was also well within our medium-term target. We maintained a strong liquidity position, with headroom of R57.2 billion (R20.5 billion in cash, and R36.7 billion in committed undrawn facilities) as at 31 March 2023.

Quarterly update for the period ended 31 March 2023 2

MTN Group Limited

Quarterly update for the period ended 31 March 2023

We upstreamed cash of R1.6 billion from our operating companies in the first three months of 2023. In addition we repatriated R987 million of localisation proceeds from MTN Nigeria in Q1.

The Group elected for a scrip dividend option for the FY 22 dividend at MTN Nigeria's 18 April 2023 Annual General Meeting (AGM). This will increase the Group's effective shareholding from 75.6% to 76.2% after finalisation. We believe this will provide a more favourable short-term store of value for our investment as we manage the nearer-term challenges in upstreaming cash from the country. Using the same rationale, the Group will consider a scrip dividend option from MTN, Ghana conditional upon its approval at the upcoming AGM on 30 May 2023.

Strategic progress

We continued the process of engagement, on a bespoke basis, with select potential strategic minority investors into the Group fintech business. We are well progressed on engagements on commercial agreements that are aimed at ensuring that any strategic minority investment also supports the acceleration of growth of our fintech platform. We anticipate the conclusion of this process during Q2 2023.

Aligned with MTN's portfolio optimisation focus within our Ambition 2025 strategy, the Company continuously assesses our investments, with the aim of improving returns and reducing risk. In line with this focus, MTN Group is evaluating an orderly exit of three operations in West Africa over the medium-term; namely MTN Guinea-Bissau, MTN Guinea-Conakry and MTN Liberia. In this regard, the Group has received an offer for our equity interests in these Opcos, from Axian Telecom, which is being evaluated.

As at 31 March 2023, the combined subscriber base of the three Opcos represented approximately 6.1 million of the Group's total 291 million subscribers, and contributed 0.7% to EBITDA.

As we are at an early stage of deliberations, we emphasise that any process of this nature will entail extensive engagements with stakeholders who will be appropriately informed as and when the evaluation process has materially progressed.

The process to exit Afghanistan in an orderly fashion through the sale of MTN's entire shareholding to a wholly-owned subsidiary of M1 remains on track, with regulatory engagements well progressed.

Group medium-term guidance maintained

We maintain our capex guidance for 2023 at R37.4 billion, cognisant of the potential impact of volatility in local exchange rates against the dollar as well as our work to accelerate MTN SA's comprehensive network resilience plan, which is a key focus in the coming quarters to materially improve network availability in H2 2023.

As we manage the ongoing challenges in our trading environment, and the near-term impacts on our top-line and margin evolution, we maintain our medium-term guidance. We will remain focused on implementing the initiatives to continue expanding our connectivity and platform ecosystems in order to sustain growth in the business, as well as executing on our Ambition 2025 strategic priorities."

Quarterly update for the period ended 31 March 2023 3

The Group's results and segmental report are presented in line with the Group's operational structure. The Group's underlying operations are clustered as follows: South Africa (SA), Nigeria, the Southern and East Africa (SEA) region, the West and Central Africa (WECA) region and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and their respective underlying operations.

The SEA region includes Uganda, Zambia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Botswana (joint venture-equity accounted), eSwatini (joint venture-equity accounted) and Business Group. The WECA region includes Ghana, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Congo- Brazzaville, Liberia, Guinea-Conakry and Guinea-Bissau. The MENA region includes Iran (joint venture-equity accounted), Sudan and Afghanistan.

Although Iran, Botswana and eSwatini form part of their respective regions geographically and operationally, they are excluded from their respective regional results because they are equity accounted for by the Group.

MTN Syria results have been disclosed up to February for 2021; as a result of loss of control effective February 2021, following MTN Syria being placed under judicial guardianship. MTN Yemen results have been disclosed up to end of October 2021, as a result of MTN's decision to exit the operation.

Certain information presented in this quarterly update constitutes pro forma financial information. The responsibility for preparing and presenting the pro forma financial information and for the completeness and accuracy of the pro forma financial information is that of the directors of MTN. This is presented for illustrative purposes only. Because of its nature, the pro forma financial information may not fairly present MTN's financial position, changes in equity, and results of operations or cash flows. It has not been audited or reviewed or otherwise reported on by our external joint auditors. The financial information on which this quarterly update is based, including constant currency information, has not been reviewed and reported on by MTN's external auditors. Constant currency information has been presented to remove the impact of movement in currency rates on the Group's results and has been calculated by translating the prior financial reporting period's results at the current period's average rates. The measurement has been performed for each of the Group's currencies, materially being that of the US dollar and Nigerian naira. The constant currency growth percentage has been calculated based on the prior period constant currency results compared to the current year results. In addition, in respect of MTN Irancell, MTN Sudan and MTN South Sudan the constant currency information has been prepared excluding the impact of hyperinflation. The economies of Sudan, South Sudan and Iran were assessed to be hyperinflationary for the period under review and hyperinflation accounting was applied.

This quarterly update may contain forward-looking information. Any forecast information on which the quarterly update may be based has not been reviewed or reported on by the Group's external auditors.

Operational review

Listed Opcos' published Q1 2023 results

The published Q1 results of our listed Opcos can be viewed at:

• MTN Nigeria: https://www.mtn.ng/about-us/investor/financial-reporting/quarterly-results/
• MTN Ghana: https://mtn.com.gh/investors/
• MTN Uganda: https://www.mtn.co.ug/investors/financial-reports/
• MTN Rwanda: https://www.mtn.co.rw/investors-financial-reporting/

Quarterly update for the period ended 31 March 2023 4

MTN SA

MTN SA's performance was resilient in Q1 against a trading environment that remained challenging. The economy remained under pressure with rising inflation and ongoing volatility in the rand against the dollar. Inflation averaged 7.0% in the quarter (Q1 2022: 5.8%) - above the upper limit of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) target range of 3-6% - putting additional pressure on our customers and business operations. In an effort to contain this, the SARB hiked interest rates by an additional 0.5pp in the period, following 3.0pp of hikes in 2022.

The extent of power outages in the country remained elevated with 90 days of loadshedding during the quarter, compared to 14 in Q1 2022. This heavily disrupted network availability, on a YoY basis, which affected MTN SA's growth trajectory; especially in its voice segment.

In this context, MTN SA achieved relatively resilient service revenue growth of 1.3%, with voice (down 16.0%) being the key drag on overall performance. In the tough trading environment, MTN SA grew the total number of subscribers by 4.1% YoY to 35.9 million.

Data continued to be a key growth driver for the business, contributing 47.9% to MTN SA's total service revenue in Q1. Mobile data revenue grew by 9.0% YoY, on the back of an 11.2% increase in active data users to 19.3 million and 19.5% growth in data traffic.

MTN SA further lowered the overall cost to communicate for its customers with the effective data tariff reduced by 8.7% YoY in the quarter; helping to drive improvements in access, affordability and engagement. An active prepaid data subscriber consumed an average of 2.7GB per month, up 3.2% YoY in Q1 2023. An active postpaid data subscriber used approximately 13.8GB per month, an increase of 17.6%.

The number of residential subscribers grew by 88.8% to 77k in Q1, helping to advance MTN SA's 'own the home' strategy. This remains a key focus area for the business underpinned by FWA and FTTH technologies.

Service revenue in the prepaid consumer business unit (CBU) was 5.0% lower reflecting the ongoing pressure on consumers and the impacts of persistent loadshedding, which had a particularly significant impact on voice revenues. Within the overall mix, the prepaid data performance was encouraging and held up reasonably well with revenue growth of 8.6%.

Postpaid CBU service revenue held up reasonably well and increased by 3.3%. While the performance in postpaid voice remained under pressure due to loadshedding and data substitution, the overall result was supported by an increased uptake in data-oriented packages despite deteriorating consumer spending and credit conditions in the market.

The enterprise business unit (EBU) delivered robust double-digit service revenue growth of 11.4% underpinned by growth in data and new contracts acquired in ICT.

The wholesale business grew service revenue by 14.9% as national roaming continued to scale. MTN SA also saw an encouraging increase in traffic on its network from Telkom, as this segment of national roaming also grew steadily.

Quarterly update for the period ended 31 March 2023 5