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In 2016 across the world,
the political landscape was unstable
•
Global economic growth slowed,
particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where many
countries are reliant on commodity exports
•
Governments implemented changes to policy
to account for the impact on revenues of
weaker commodity prices
•
Financial market sentiment toward emerging economies improved marginally
•
Currencies were volatile
and in some markets inflation increased, weighing on consumer
and investor sentiment
•
The
youthful populations of our markets
continued to adopt ICT offerings
enthusiastically
Link to
material
issue
•
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•
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The telecoms industry continued its rapid evolution
in both the traditional connectivity
business and non-traditional businesses such as mobile financial services and content-
based services
•
Competition intensified
and more consumers used over-the-top services driven by
increased smartphone penetration
•
The availability and use of mobile devices and broadband connectivity increased
.
This provided telcos with the
opportunity to increase revenue
through greater
connectivity and more sophisticated products and services
•
•
Regulatory demands continued to increase:
greater customer SIM card registration
requirements, additional taxes and the obligation in some markets for foreign companies to
list/localise their subsidiaries
•
In South Africa, there were delays in the process to assign spectrum
so telcos had
to erect more sites and re-farm spectrum
•
In Nigeria, the regulator continued to consider MTN a dominant operator,
impacting
our commercial success
•
Building relationships with regulators and ensuring best-practice compliance
became more critical amid slow economic growth and low government revenue
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Our operating context
The environment in which we operate has direct implications for our ability to create
value, and informs our strategy development and evaluation. By considering our
operating context, we are better able to determine our material issues and how best
to respond to them.
MTN Group Limited
Integrated Report 2016
06