MTN Group says 21,000 subscribers in Ghana disconnected after SIM registration

African telecoms firm MTN Group has reported that 21,237 subscribers at its Ghana unit have been disconnected.

The company announced this in its 2012 first quarter customer base report released May 4, 2012.

The disconnection was due to subscribers’ inability to register during the SIM registration exercise which ended March 1, 2012.

“The deadline for SIM registration was March 1, 2012 resulting in a disconnection of 21,237 subscribers representing 2% of the subscriber base,” said the MTN Group.

Despite losing some subscribers, the customer base of MTN Ghana increased from 10,156, 000 as at December 2011 to 10,394,000 at the end of March 31, 2012. This represented a 2.3% increase.

MTN Group recorded 170,573,000 subscribers as at March 31, 2012. This is a 3.7% increase for the quarter from 164,501,000 subscribers recorded at December 31, 2011.

“MTN Ghana contributed 6.1% to Group subscribers, increasing its subscribers 2.3% for the quarter and maintaining market share in a competitive environment,” the report said.

The Group attributed Ghana’s contribution to attractive promotions as well as the implementation of a regional structure to better manage sales and marketing.

Local currency ARPU for MTN Ghana increased by 3.4% mainly because of revised value propositions, the company noted.

By Ekow Quandzie