MTN Rwanda losing ground to rivals

November 19, 2017 in Business, Companies by Editor

NOVEMBER 19- African telecom giant MTN’s Rwandan unit is fast losing ground as competitors close ranks with it according to data from sector regulator Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority RURA.

According to filings for October 2017 that RURA received from operators, only a single point now separates MTN Rwanda from its nearest competitor, TIGO Rwanda.

TIGO now commands 40 percent of the market, a point away from MTN in the three-horse race that has Airtel Rwanda trending at 19 percent of the market.

The numbers based on the active subscribers over the preceding 90-day period show the market expanded 1 percent from 8,592,544 at the end of September, 2017 to 8,675,826 at the end of October. But month to month growth remained flat for MTN’s post-paid segment at 52,784 while its prepaid base expanded only 0.3 percent to reach   3,535,322. That marginally pushed its total subscriptions to 3,588,106 represent a 0.3 percentage change

That compares with TIGO which posted 0.7 percent growth in its post-paid segment and 2.1 percent in its pre-paid base rounding off at 3,456,237 total active users representing a 2 percentage change. The race for the top crown is clearly between TIGO and MTN as Airtel Rwanda overall managed to add just 2973 subscribers.