By Joe Hoppe

MTN Group Ltd. said Thursday its subsidiary MTN Ghana's pretax profit rose 37% in 2020, on the back of growth in subscribers.

The South Africa-based telecommunications group said the unit made a pretax profit of 1.97 billion Ghanaian cedis ($340.0 million), up from GHC1.44 billion a year earlier.

Revenue rose to GHC6.03 billion, from GHC5.18 billion. The number of subscribers rose 23% year over year to 24.4 million, boosting service revenue 16% to GHC5.99 billion, it said.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization--a metric that strips out exceptional and other one off items--rose to GHC3.18 billion from GHC2.63 billion, benefiting from cost efficiencies and operational expenditure cuts, it said.

The board recommended a final dividend of five Ghanaian pesewas (0.9 U.S. cent) a share, bringing the total dividend to eight Ghanaian pesewas.

The company said the Ghanaian economy began to rebound in the final quarter of the year, but said it is still cautious given the continued uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

"We will remain within our service revenue growth target band of 13% to 15% and employ prudent cost strategies to continue to improve our margins and further ensure growth in our bottom line," the company said.

Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-25-21 0152ET