BTC 2021 score card

Accumulates in an impressive P1.43 billion revenue

BTC 2021-2023 digital driven strategy unlocks growth

BTC executives buoyant ahead of a new financial year

BAKANG TIRO

editors@thepatriot.co.bw

Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) has posted an impressive financial performance in 2021 by raking P1, 43 billion despite tough trading conditions.

The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) listed company disclosed this success in its annual report this week.

Anthony Masunga, the BTC Managing Director, underscored that since the beginning of the fiscal year saw the implementation of their new three-year strategy.

Masunga said the new strategy is the focused on the strengthening of the core business, optimising efficiencies and return on assets in addition to pursuing growth opportunities.

“The start of the financial year coincided with the implementation of the national measures to contain the COVID-19 virus leading to national lockdowns which in the turn placed pressure on our performance for the first half of the year. However, we have since seen a decent recovery in our financial performance year-on-year. The Group has reported the revenue of P1.43 billion, which is a 1% increase over the prior year,” stressed the ever buoyant BTC Managing Director.

This increase in revenue was driven by the monetisation of significant investments in fixed and mobile broadband infrastructure in support of high-speed internet service at homes and offices across most parts of the country.

Masunga said they have delivered a strong double-digit growth with profit after-tax of 16% when compared to prior year, as it’s driven by the slight increase in the revenue and the robust cost reduction strategies that improved EBITDA to P463 million.

“Cash and cash equivalents significantly increased by 20.4% from P120 million in the prior year to P364 million as at the end of March 2021. The increase was driven by a positive cash conversion ratio of 52% as well as favourable working capital resulting from implementation of debt collection measures during impressive financial performance, growing total revenue by 1%,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, BTC Board Chairperson Lorato Bokgomo-Ntakhwana said the year under review was the first of the company’s 2021-23 year strategy that commits to providing clients with digital solutions.

“Having embedded a culture of high performance the previous year, our focus has now shifted to employing automation and digital transformation throughout our business operations. Our customers can now access our products and the services and complete their purchases online through our new online shop and mobile application,” said Bokgomo- Ntakhwana.

Commenting on the operational performance, she said the world economy during the year was sluggish and led to lower economic growth in Botswana, but BTC emerged to be strong to quell the volatility.

According to Bokgomo-Ntakhwana, the disruptive coronavirus pandemic saw economies of the world grinding to halt, and all sectors, including ICT, have been adversely affected.

“Despite the challenging trading conditions, BTC remained resilient and continued to deliver solid performance for the year. We maintained our share of the broadband and mobile customers and also saw our Mobile money subscriber base increase, bearing testament to our commitment to financial inclusion and our quest to empower our customers with innovative mobile financial products,” she said.

Furthermore, Bokgomo-Ntakhwana said in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the eventual extreme social distancing measures implemented nationwide, a shift to working from home at the end of March 2020 drove demand for fixed and mobile networking infrastructure and connectivity but led to a significant decline in BTC fixed-line and mobile voice revenue too.

Looking ahead into the new financial year, the BTC executives say the company focus will be on streamlining efficiencies throughout the business, continuing to keep a tight rein on their costs while making smart capital expenditure investments with one key focus areas being automation.

“In anticipation of increased adoption of the innovative digital solutions by more businesses to sustain their performance, BTC has positioned itself to be the market leader in delivering digital solutions to its customers through its wide, high speed data connectivity network, cloud-based services, and superior customer service,” Masunga  underscored.