MTN Group Limited (MTN) Earnings Call Transcript

Good day to everyone, and thank you for joining us once again to discuss the MTN Group trading update for the 9 months ended September 2026. My name is Roy Mutooni. I look after Investor Relations at the MTN Group. On the call with me this afternoon, I've got Ralph Mupita, who is our Group President and CEO; Tsholo Molefe, who is our Group CFO; and Ferdi Moolman, who is our MTN SA CEO. Our trading update was published this morning on the JSE, and it's posted on our website. If you haven't had a chance to look at it yet, you'll find it on our Investor Relations page. I trust you've also seen the Q3 releases from our listed operating companies who published results over the last few weeks. In terms of the agenda for today, the running order of the call will be as usual. Ralph will get us underway with an overview of the operational performance. He will be followed by Tsholo with an overview of our financial highlights, and then Ralph will come back to wrap up with a few focus areas as well as outlook comments. We'll then move into Q&A, and I encourage you to send your questions in advance onto the webcast platform, and I will read those out towards the end of the call. Finally, a reminder that this call is scheduled for about an hour, at which point we'll close the call. And with that, let me hand over to Ralph.

Thank you, Roy, and good afternoon to everybody. Thanks for joining us from your various locations. Before we begin, I'd just like to ask you to note the disclaimer on the Slide 2 and particularly as it relates to forward-looking statements. Our headline is clear. Growth reaccelerated through the third quarter. Margins expanded, and cash generation was strong. Let me unpack this in the 6 key messages for the 9 months to the 30th of September 2026. I think, first, the group delivered a strong performance. Service revenue grew by 17.2% and by 16.6% in the third quarter. Importantly, growth accelerated every month from May to exit September at 18.1% service revenue growth. EBITDA grew faster than revenue, up 22.9%, lifting the group EBITDA margin by 2.8 percentage points to 47.9% despite the high energy costs that we had across our markets. Second, EBITDA grew -- growth accelerated in the third quarter in several of our key markets compared with the second quarter growth rates. Q3 EBITDA growth stepped up in Nigeria to 32.8%, in Ghana to 43.1%, in South Africa to 7%, Rwanda to 26.9% and Zambia to 55.2%. Third is fintech improved through the period. Reported fintech revenue grew by 12.7%, held back by the suspension of Airtime Advance in Nigeria in Q2 and the beginning of Q3. Excluding Airtime Advance, MoMo revenue grew by 18.5% and accelerated to 19.9% in the third quarter. Our advanced services grew by 32.4%, and fintech transaction value rose by 36.9% to $512.5 billion. Fourth, cash generation and the balance sheet are strong, as Tsholo will cover. We generated free cash flow of ZAR 22.4 billion. Our operations upstreamed ZAR 21.4 billion to the holding company, up 80% on a year ago, and the net debt to EBITDA was 0.2x. Fifth, we've commenced our share buyback program, and it's progressing. We executed ZAR 2 billion of the 3-year ZAR 6 billion program that we announced at the half year. And sixth, the IHS transaction remains on track. We have received IHS shareholder approvals, Nigerian regulatory and COMESA approvals. The South African Competition Tribunal, ECOWAS and CEMAC approvals are the ones outstanding, and we still expect completion before the end of 2026. In terms of commercial momentum, we saw it sustained across our markets. Subscribers increased by 7.2% to 322.9 million. Active data subscribers grew by 9.6% to just under 182 million, and we saw data traffic rising by 27.3%, with quarterly traffic rising from 6,800 petabytes in Q1 to more than 8,400 petabytes in Q3. In fintech, MoMo monthly active users increased by 9.3% to 70.3 million, with a slight dip in the third quarter, reflecting the platform migration that is ongoing in Nigeria. Transaction volumes rose by 20.1% to 20.3 billion. And as I mentioned earlier on, the transaction value grew by 36.9%, reflecting greater usage and the continued maturing of our ecosystem. This growth was broad-based across the portfolio. Of the 21.7 million subscribers we added over the year, Nigeria contributed 9.3 million, the SEA+ region just over 6 million, with Ghana adding 3.9 million. Francophone Africa added 2.4 million, and our joint ventures added 1.2 million. The South African base was 1.1 million lower, reflecting the deliberate reset of our prepaid base. We added 15.9 million active data users, led by Nigeria with 6.1 million, and 6 million MoMo active users, with SEA, the largest contributor, at 2.7 million. Beyond our 3 largest markets, the broader portfolio made an improving contribution. MTN Côte d'Ivoire sustained its turnaround with service revenue up 16.1%. Data revenue was up 45.4% and EBITDA was up 27.5%. MTN Uganda had a tougher quarter. It added 2.9 million customers, and fintech growth accelerated to 13.3% in the third quarter, but unauthorized public Wi-Fi resellers drew usage away from mobile data. We are working with the authorities and the rest of the industry to address this and restore data growth. And MTN Uganda expects an EBITDA margin of around 50% for FY 2026. Let me now turn to our key operations, starting with South Africa. Service revenue was flat in the third quarter and grew by 1% for the 9 months. But the consumer business improved on the second quarter. Prepaid is turning. The decline in prepaid revenue narrowed from 3.2% in Q2 to 2.4% in Q3. Prepaid data revenue growth accelerated from 5% to 6.3%, and the Q3 recharges were 3.1% higher than in Q2, and prepaid monthly data usage rose by 28.9% to 5.2 gigabytes. Consumer postpaid grew by 5% in Q3, up from 4.3% in the second quarter, and data now accounts for 50.5% of service revenue in South Africa. Enterprise and wholesale slowed in the quarter. Enterprise revenue grew by 1.8% in Q3 against 4.4% for the 9 months on lower bulk SMS and mobile advertising revenue. And wholesale grew by 3.9% against 10.4% on lower traffic from major wholesale customers. We also continue to see pressure in voice, which declined by 10.5%, with interconnect revenue down 20.4% after the cuts in mobile termination rates, and in digital and fintech, which declined by 10.2% and 15.3%, respectively, the latter largely because of the XtraTime reset. We have deliberately reset the prepaid base and XtraTime, our Airtime Advance service, prioritizing the quality of the base over the short-term volume. Prepaid subscribers fell by 829,000 in the quarter to 27.4 million. But the prepaid ARPU rose by 6% quarter-on-quarter to just under ZAR 65, fewer but more valuable customers. Prepaid ARPU was also 2.8% higher year-on-year, and consumer postpaid subscribers grew by 6.1% to 4.8 million. Turning to profitability, the third quarter was MTN South Africa's strongest earnings quarter for the year. EBITDA grew by 7%. EBITDA margin rose to 38.1%, up 3.6 percentage points year-on-year and 2.2 points on the second quarter, as the structural cost interventions started to take effect. Over the 9 months, network and IT costs were 5% lower. Marketing spend was reduced, and doubtful debts fell by 16.2%. And this is against headwinds from the XtraTime reset, softer service revenue, commissions, and bulk SMS costs, as well as the share scheme charge. Excluding immaterial tower disposal losses, the margin has improved every quarter this year from 32.6% in Q1 to 35.9% in Q2, and 38.1% in Q3. We will not annualize the third quarter, though. About 0.8 percentage points of the 3.6 percentage points came from lower device revenues, which were down 21.5%, and seasonally stronger device sales would dilute the fourth quarter margin. For the full year, we continue to expect an EBITDA margin within our 35% to 37% range. Our performance in South Africa is not at the level of our ambitions, but we believe the business is likely bottoming. Our cost base is leaner, the customer base healthier, and our margin stronger. The recovery will be recharge-led -- cash recharges, excluding repayments, continue to grow as the reset normalizes. We expect this to show increasingly in reported service revenue. In the fourth quarter, we'll complete the XtraTime reset and simplifying the portfolio. For the full year, we continue to expect service revenue growth below our low to mid-single-digit medium-term guidance. On Cell C, MTN SA and Cell C have engaged extensively on the terms of their long-standing, which has not reached agreement on certain terms as at this point in time. These will be addressed through the mechanism provided for in the parties' agreement, while engagement on the terms of relationships going forward continues. We are also engaging ICASA on the amended end user and subscriber service charter regulations, which are due to take effect in January 2027. Moving on to Nigeria, MTN Nigeria published its results on 30 October. Service revenue grew by 23.5% in the 9 months and by 19.7% in the third quarter, accelerating each month to 21.6% in September, and the EBITDA margin was 56.9% -- both are within guidance. The operating environment was more supportive. The naira was stable, FX liquidity improved, and average inflation moderated to 15.4%, although energy and diesel costs remained elevated. Part of the third quarter improvement reflects easier comparative and the resumption of Airtime Advance in July, but the momentum is more than base effects. With the first quarter tariff increase now largely in the base, growth rose every month through the quarter, driven by underlying demand, usage, and execution. Subscribers have increased by 10.9% to just under 95 million -- 10.9% to just under 95 million with 3.2 million mobile net additions in the third quarter, up from 2.7 million in Q2. Active data users rose by 12% to 57 million, and data traffic grew by 30.1%. In the third quarter, data revenue grew by 31.4%, voice by 9.3%. For the 9 months, data revenue grew by 35.6%, digital by 24.1%, and voice by 10.9%. We continue to roll out the network with CapEx of ZAR 10.2 billion, excluding leases, and home broadband, supported by our fiber-to-the-home leadership. This is an increasingly important growth driver for our business in Nigeria. Fintech revenue in Nigeria declined by 26.6% due to the suspension of Airtime Advance in the second quarter. The service resumed in July under a new multi-partner model. Q3 Airtime Advance revenue was 77.9% higher than Q2, and MTN Nigeria expects it to return to pre-suspension levels before the end of the year. MTN Ghana sustained a strong performance. Service revenue grew by 33.5% in the 9 months, up from 32.3% at the half, supported by moderate inflation of 5.2%, and a more stable cedi in the third quarter, which improved predictability and eased cost pressures. Growth was broad-based. Data revenue grew by 44.7%. Data now accounts for 58.1% of total service revenue, up from 53.6% a year ago. Digital revenue grew by 97.7%, mobile money by 25.3%, and voice by 7.2%, while active data users increased by 16% to 22 million. EBITDA grew by 40.7%, and the margin expanded by 3.2 percentage points to 61.6%. We accelerated CapEx to ZAR 3.8 billion, excluding leases, more than double the number of homes passed and completed the structural separation of the fintech business. Turning to fintech, fintech revenue, as I mentioned, grew by 12.7%, mainly held back by the suspension of Airtime Advance in Nigeria in the second quarter. Together with lower interest on float balances in Ghana and the election-related disruptions in Uganda earlier in the year, this weighed on profitability with the fintech EBITDA margin at 41.7% compared to 44.3% last year. Excluding Airtime Advance, MoMo revenue grew by 18.5%. Basic revenues grew by 11.5%, whilst advanced services grew by 32.4% and now contribute 37.4% of MoMo revenue, excluding Airtime Advance, and this is up 3.9 percentage points. The ecosystem continues to deepen. Active agents are up 7.5% to 1.4 million. Active merchants are up 19.4% to 2.5 million. Merchant payment values grew by 16.5% to $19.6 billion. Loan values facilitated across marketplace lending and MoMo Advance rose by 80.1% to $4.2 billion, driven by Ghana, Uganda, and Cameroon. And remittance values grew by 15.7% to ZAR 5.5 billion, helped by proactive management of informal routes and partner liquidity and direct management of international money transfer traffic. Bringing this all together, we've made good progress against our medium-term guidance. Group service revenue at 17.2% is in line with our target of at least high teens, and Nigeria, 23.3% is within our guidance of at least low 20s. South Africa, 1%, and fintech at 12.7% are below our ranges for the reasons I've outlined. Group leverage at 0.2x is well within our target of 1x or lower, and return on capital employed of 32.5% is within our high 20s to low 30s range. Let me hand over to Tsholo to take us through the financial review.

Thank you, Ralph, and good day, everyone. Before handing over back to Ralph for the outlook. So, as usual, I'll refer to constant currency growth rates unless otherwise stated. These remove the impact of currency movements, and for Iran, Sudan, and South Sudan, the effect of hyperinflation accounting. So if I can start with the key financial messages that we would like to leave you with. Firstly, strong underlying growth, operating leverage, and cash generation continue to support our capital allocation. As said, we've seen service revenue growth of 17.2% to ZAR 176 billion, and EBITDA growing by 22.9%, with a margin up 2.8 percentage points to 47.9%. On a reported basis, service revenue grew by 9.9%, and EBITDA by 17.7%. The difference here reflects a rand that was on average about 10% stronger against the U.S. dollar, which lowered the rand value of results from our operations outside South Africa. On earnings quality, EBITDA growth outpaced service revenue growth, and our expense efficiency program absorbed higher energy costs. The exception was fintech, where the EBITDA margin was 41.7% compared to 44.3% same period last year, largely because of the Airtime Advance suspension in Nigeria. On capital allocation, we saw free cash flow reaching ZAR 22.4 billion for the 9 months, and we upstreamed ZAR 21.4 billion, which was up 80% compared to ZAR 11.9 billion a year ago. This enabled us to settle our Eurobond, which matured in October of $500 million. And we also were able to repurchase approximately ZAR 2 billion in shares under the buyback program while maintaining our targeted debt levels. We saw group service revenue increasing, as I indicated, and this growth was broad-based and well ahead of our blended inflation of 9.5%. Data remains our largest growth engine, with data growing 28.2% to almost ZAR 89 billion, and now it accounts for 50% of our group service revenue. Fintech revenue grew 12.7% to ZAR 22.6 billion. And, as Ralph mentioned, excluding Airtime Advance, MoMo revenue grew by 18.5%. The group EBITDA margin, as I indicated, expanded from 45.1% to 47.9%, really reflecting operating leverage and the benefit of our EEP program. Now, if I look into the quarterly trends, growth accelerated in Q3 after the dip that we saw in Q2. Service revenue growth was 21.1% in Q1, 14% in Q2, and 16.6% in quarter 3. The first quarter was boosted by price increases in Nigeria, as we know. Q2 dipped as those increases moved into the base, and also Airtime Advance in Nigeria, as we said, was suspended. In Q3, we saw growth recovery, which was also supported by Benin, Congo-Brazzaville, as well as Sudan, and the restoration of fintech services in Nigeria, and the customer value management initiatives in Ghana. Data revenue followed a similar pattern, growing by 35.4% in the first quarter, then 23.8% in quarter 2 before improving to 26.4% in quarter 3. And fintech revenue was 20% in the first quarter, it dipped to 10% in the second quarter, and improved in third quarter, reaching 11.6% increase. Importantly, the EBITDA margin improved every quarter from 47.6% in quarter 1, reaching 47.7% in the second quarter, and now at 48.2% in the quarter under review. Turning now to our 3 largest operations, we saw margins improving in Nigeria, Ghana, and in South Africa, excluding -- in South Africa, excluding the share scheme provision, despite the softer service revenue growth against a higher base. In South Africa, specifically, we saw service revenue growth of 1% compared to 2% in the prior period. The reported EBITDA margin was 35.5%, which was down 0.4 percentage points. So, excluding the MTN SA employee share scheme, EBITDA declined by 0.7%, with the margin reaching 37.8%. In MTN Nigeria, service revenue grew 23.5% against a high base of 57.1% last year, which benefited from the tariff adjustments. The EBITDA margin expanded by 5.4 percentage points from 51.5% to 56.9%, which is within the guidance. In MTN Ghana, service revenue grew 33.5% against 35.9% in the prior period. EBITDA increased by 40.6%, and the margin expanded by 3.2 percentage points to 61.6%, driven largely by strong revenue growth, disciplined cost management, and operating leverage. The quarterly view shows the direction of travel as well. You'll see in South Africa, as Ralph indicated, service revenue was flat in quarter 3, but the margin improved every quarter, reaching 38.1% in the third quarter. In Nigeria, service revenue growth moved from 41.7% in the first quarter, which included the tariff adjustment, as I indicated, to 13.2% in Q2 before recovering to almost 20% in the third quarter, 19.7% to be exact, while the margin improved each quarter from 55% to 56.5% in the second quarter, and reaching 58.7% in quarter 3. This was in Nigeria. With Ghana, service revenue growth was 35.7% in the first quarter, 9.2% in quarter 2, and 35.7% in the third quarter, with the margins between 61.2% and 62.3% throughout that period. Now, if we move on to the rest of the portfolio, the SEA+ region grew service revenue by 19.7% to ZAR 25.1 billion, ahead of the region's blended inflation of 18.2%. The EBITDA margin was 44.1%, 1.7 percentage points lower than a year ago as MTN South Sudan as well as MTN Sudan remained exposed to macroeconomic, currency, as well as operational pressures. MTN Rwanda grew service revenue by 20%, and the EBITDA by 29.1%, while MTN Uganda grew service revenue by 8.5% with an EBITDA margin of 51.1%, down 2.7 percentage points as unauthorized public Wi-Fi resellers drew usage away from the mobile data as we indicated earlier. On the Francophone side, we continue to see its improving trajectory with service revenue up 9.4% to ZAR 26.1 billion, comfortably ahead of the blended inflation of 2.4%. The EBITDA margin expanded by 0.6 percentage points to 36.5%. MTN Côte d'Ivoire sustained its turnaround with service revenue up 16.1%, and the EBITDA margin up 3.4 percentage points to now 39.6%, leading the region's margin expansion. MTN Cameroon grew service revenue by 11.4%, with data revenue up 24.4%. If we move on to the balance sheet, we invested ZAR 20.8 billion in CapEx, excluding leases, compared to ZAR 27.9 billion last year, with CapEx intensity of 15.9% against 16.8% last year. This included accelerated investments that we made in Nigeria, in Côte d'Ivoire, in Uganda, as well as in Ghana. For the full year, we do expect the CapEx to remain within our envelope of between $2 billion and $2.5 billion for the year. Cash upstreaming to the group, as I said, up 80% to ZAR 21.4 billion from ZAR 11.9 billion a year ago. The balance sheet remains strong. Group net debt to EBITDA at 0.2x, well within our targeted range, and liquidity headroom of ZAR 42.8 billion. After the period end, we settled the Eurobond, as I indicated, which matured sometime mid-October. With that, I'll hand over back to Ralph to discuss the outlook and priorities.

Thanks very much, Tsholo. And in wrapping up, concluding, our focus areas are clear, which is to sustain commercial momentum across the entire portfolio, to deliver the MTN SA prepaid recovery, to execute on our fintech commercial and strategic priorities, and the Nigeria Airtime Advance rebuild, also to maintain our capital and cost disciplines, and provide sufficient liquidity, particularly as we are looking to complete the IHS acquisition. We're encouraged by our year-to-date performance. The structural demands for data and fintech services continue to underpin the MTN investment case and our medium-term growth. The group remains well positioned to deliver on its medium-term guidance, group service revenue of at least high teens, return on capital employed in the high 20s to low 30s, and the group leverage of 1x or lower. In short, growth reaccelerated through the third quarter. Margins expanded. Cash generation was strong, and MTN SA is moving in the right direction. With that, thanks very much, and Roy, back to you for the Q&A.

Ralph and Tsholo, thank you very much for that overview. We can jump straight into the Q&A. I'd like to start with a few questions for South Africa as Ferdi is here with us in the room. And if I just say in summary, what makes you comfortable that this SA service revenue will reaccelerate? Can you be more specific on the drivers for the improvement in EBITDA margin?

Sure. So, let me address the question by talking about quality versus quantity of subscribers, and I think we've mentioned this quite a few times. So, one of the things you'll see we reported as an increase in ARPU. But what this also does, by the way, it also assists with the drop in cost. So, when we look at quality versus quantity, this is not just on the prepaid base, but also on the postpaid base. So, as the quality of the subscriber improves, your bad debt ratio, for example, also improves. So, you'll see a decrease in the cost. It's a purposeful reset also of the base. So, there's a lot of focus on getting the KYC up to the standards. And I think I'm sure you're aware that ICASA actually released the draft regulations. They call them numbering regulations. But if you read them, it's more or less around KYC and what needs to happen in the market with KYC. So, we are in support of this directionally. There are some challenges with the regulation, but we are working with ICASA to come up with a regulation that we believe is practical and can be employed and can be done in the market. Other growth areas also perhaps, as you're aware, is resetting the XtraTime. We basically cleaned up the base as best as we can, and we're now starting to push XtraTime again. So, that will start contributing to the prepaid base also. On the enterprise side, you would see a flat Q2 to Q3 on enterprise. Enterprise does have some seasonality in it. So, there's a reference that we made to mobile advertising. Hence, there's some seasonality in mobile advertising. So, as an example, you have Black Friday coming up in November, you have the end of year seasonality coming at the end of the year. So, you'll see an increase in mobile advertising. And we also purposely looked at implementing a feature customer fair on the mobile advertising as well aligned with some of the regulations that have come into play. And on the wholesale base, the wholesale is not just impacted by MVNOs or by the Cell C relationship, but there was also a termination -- mobile termination reset that took place at the end of June of this year, I think the beginning of July, where the rate was dropped by ZAR 0.02 per minute. Also on the cost base, I think there was a question around the cost as well, right? I did address some of the impact in costing on, on focusing on quality of subscribers, where I spoke about the improvement of the debt base and postpaid specifically. And then, of course, as we start pushing less and less SIMs, as we stop driving for quantity as opposed to quality, you push less SIMs in the market, and that cost also then reduces over time. The other cost savings comes from more sustainable on the network side, on the higher side, et cetera. So, that's basically a response here.

Thanks, Ferdi. This one is for you, Ralph. Can you give us any update on the IHS transaction and the outstanding approvals? And how come we have not been any public hearings on the -- from the Competition Commission or Competition Tribunal?

Yes. I mean, the date that I can share is we are at the tribunal on the 17th. We originally meant to have been on last Friday, the 6th. Tribunal asked us to move it to the 17th. So, we'll be there on the 17th. And obviously, if there are any intervening parties that we just talked to South Africa that have come through initially at the CompCom ahead of going to the tribunal. We've put forward a set of the so-called FRAND conditions, fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms that I think one would imagine in an open access telco model, parties would look to see being in place. And I guess limited intervention up to now because we've met those conditions, which third parties would be keen to ensure that there's no discriminatory behavior in favor of MTN in this case. So, as we said, the approvals that are outstanding are substantially ECOWAS, and we're working through that. There's also CEMAC, as well as the Competition Tribunal here in South Africa, which will be heard on the 17th.

Ralph, this one is for you, Tsholo. Upstreaming nearly doubled to ZAR 21.4 billion. How much of that is linked to working capital movement or the timing of OpCo dividends? Would you be able to give us a sustainable run rate and the order of use: buybacks, dividends, IHS, or deleveraging?

Yes. I mean, firstly, just to clarify, our upstreaming is based on the dividend that's declared by the operating companies. And obviously, as a major shareholder, we get that cash upstreaming. But I think to address the point, I think probably you want to ask about free cash flow. The free cash flow was strong during the period, and we've seen it also in H1. It's really primarily due to strong underlying performance. The working capital levels have remained similar to H1 levels, but we expect that to improve in the last quarter as per normal due to seasonality.

Maybe, Ralph, you can answer this one. Excluding SA, Nigeria and Ghana and Uganda from the group, maybe speak a little bit about the margins for the rest of the market and whether any of the markets stand out from a medium-term perspective?

Yes. I mean, we're pretty excited about Côte d'Ivoire. I mean, Côte d'Ivoire is a country is a large economy. I think on a GDP basis, it's similar and depending on cocoa sales or gold sales in Nigeria -- sorry, in Ghana, it's similar size to Ghana on a GDP basis. So, we think that this is a market where we should anticipate much higher contribution to the business. So, we -- what we're seeing now in the growth, particularly of the connectivity business, we still have some pressures in the fintech business, but the connectivity business is growing very strongly. We're putting CapEx to work there, and we're seeing the growth coming through. So, pretty excited about that market in terms of an increased contribution and therefore, adding to earnings and cash flow over time. The other one would be Cameroon. I think Cameroon is -- it's a business in a good market position and again, can do a bit of heavy lifting. Benin has been a market where we've challenged and battled with asymmetric regulatory conditions. These have been resolved now, and we thank the authorities for, kind of, leveling the playing field for us there. Many moons ago, Benin was one of the highest cash repatriators to the group when you look at management fees and dividends. So, if we can restore that business, I think, going into next year, that should also be exciting. So, those will be 3 businesses that I would highlight as part of the portfolio that can, over time, continue to contribute not just to earnings, but to the overall Holdco cash position. And these are businesses where we think, over time, the margins can improve.

Thanks, Ralph. Ferdi, can you provide some color on the competitive environment in South Africa? And also, can you help us understand the issues with the Cell C contract and how important it is in the mix for MTN?

Let me perhaps start with Cell C and just make 2 comments. And obviously, we're sticking to the statement we made in terms of where we are with the contract itself that the relationship for us with Cell C is very important. We value the long-standing partnership, and we will work towards a position where both parties be commercially viable basis for us to go forward to get to a position where we have a commercially viable basis going forward. I think the second point I just wanted to make is there must be a clear understanding that the customer service and the customer will not be impacted at all as the process continues. I think generally, that then in terms of the competitive environment, still very competitive in the prepaid environment. We will focus on the direction we're going in, which is principally focusing on quality subscribers as opposed to just bringing volume. We believe this is a sustainable way going forward. It will give us sustainable revenue growth, clear cash flow, and also going to inflate our expenses. In terms of the other channels, we still believe there's a lot of opportunity in the enterprise space, especially in IoT. We also believe there's a lot of opportunities in the home base where we also believe there's a lot of -- we can grow substantially on the home base as well. Yes, that's it.

Thanks, Ferdi. This one is for you, Ralph. Given the low inflation in places like Ghana and even when you look at your blended inflation has come down, what impact do you think that will have on your medium-term guidance?

That's a great question. And I think Stephen and the team would have probably addressed this on their own call. Inflation is single-digit low in Ghana at the moment. Our own views and reading through forecast, et cetera, is that over the medium term, that's potentially likely to be, kind of, early mid-teens. So, I mean, our guidance is always, kind of, medium-term guidance is 3 to 5 years. But what you've seen in Ghana is that the inflation went -- we actually went to hyperinflation, so close to the 40s, and quite materially came back to the low single digits. So, the way we look at it is that we will assess at the beginning of the year, kind of, the 3- to 5-year outlook when we normally do our 3-year planning processes, which will complete in this month, to have a look at what that would look like. I think you can anticipate that if inflation remains stubbornly much lower, which obviously is a good thing, that the service revenue guidance, we may look to adjust that. But we want to have a look at it with a 3- to 5-year lens on what that will be. I think, when you look at the margin, we've said before that at 61 plus, that's very good margins, but we wouldn't pencil that in for the medium term. I think that the margin, even if inflation comes down, the margin that we currently have remains good guidance. Looking at Nigeria, I think our guidance remains pretty -- we're comfortable with that. Inflation is 15-odd. We want to earn service revenue growth a couple of percentage points above inflation. And so Nigeria for us remains -- I mean, the only outlier is we had very sustained high energy costs for a period of time that might eat away at the margin, and we've given the margin sensitivity before. I won't touch on South Africa. I think that one is pretty straightforward. So, I think, if we do look at the change in guidance, as I said, we would want to let the full year come and pass as we start also looking at the year ahead. It's more likely on the service revenue rather than the margin. The margin, we think the guidance there in Ghana will remain pretty much in place.

This one is for you, Tsholo. How confident are you of your CMD CapEx envelope guidance of $2 billion to $2.5 billion for annual CapEx to be spent between 2026 to 2030?

Yes. I mean, we maintain that guidance of $2 billion to $2.5 billion. Of course, we will assess on an annual basis. As we've always said that strategically, there are areas that we will support, such as connecting the home, continue to win in data across the market. I think those are the key areas. And we will look to see once we have completed the IHS transaction, what maintenance requirements are available. So, we will continue to update as and when, but we retain the guidance at this point.