Following approval of declaration of dividends by its shareholders at the Annual General Meeting held on the 27th day of May 2022, MTN Uganda has paid out a total dividend of Shs105.4 billion to its 21,452 shareholders for the year ended 31st December 2021.
Each shareholder, registered on the books of the company by 01 June 2022, has received a dividend of Shs4.706 per share in accordance with the Uganda Securities Exchange Rules.
All dividend payments have been subjected to withholding tax in accordance with the Income Tax Act. All Ugandan individuals are subject to a 10% withholding tax while East African individuals and Companies including Ugandan companies, are subject to a 15% withholding tax.
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF), which is the second-largest institutional shareholder with a stake of 8.84%, earned a dividend of Shs9.3 billion for the year 2021.
Handing over a dummy cheque for the final dividend earnings for the period 6th to 31st December 2021 to Richard Byarugaba the Managing Director of the NSSF, Andrew Bugembe, the MTN Uganda Chief Finance Officer highlighted the company commitment to its shareholders.
“MTN Uganda is committed to returning great value to all its shareholders, and therefore today, we are delighted to be living out to this commitment to our shareholders having taken a step to invest in MTN Uganda,” Mr. Bugembe said.
Bugembe further noted that MTN Uganda’s policy is to pay dividends three times a year in June, September, and December at a minimum of 60% of profit after tax hinged on the company operational performance. The target for the year 2022 is to payout 75-80% of the profit made as dividends.
Richard Patrick Byarugaba the Managing Director of the National Social Security Fund applauded the Telecom company for it’s great performance.
“The dividend declared and paid by MTN Uganda is impressive and grows investor confidence in the company. We have also seen the company deliver impressive subscriber growth since the IPO (mobile subscribers – 10.7% to 15.7M), as well as double-digit growth in key segments (data and mobile money) which bodes well for the future performance of the company.”
In line with MTN’s Financial inclusion strategic mission, 87% of MTN shareholders have been paid through the MTN mobile money platform.
MTN Uganda was listed on the Uganda Securities on 6th December 2021.
