Grameenphone Limited has reported total revenues of Tk 150.4 billion (15,040.35 crore) for the fiscal year of 2022, registering a year-over-year growth of 5.1 percent.

Due to a regulatory ban on the sale of sim cards during the second half of the year, the company registered a 5.0 percent YoY lower subscriber base, reached 7.91 crore users at the end of 2022, said a press release.

Yasir Azman, CEO of Grameenphone, said the company exhibited a resilient performance in the face of external hurdles in the fourth quarter of 2022, ending the year with continued topline growth momentum.

“The ongoing year-over-year growth was mainly driven by our increased investment in network and deployment of new spectrum, reaching the milestone of over 20K total sites and 19.6K 4G sites on our network,” said the CEO.

On June 29 in 2022, the telecom regulator had imposed a ban on sale of the company’s sim cards, which negatively affected its  subscriber growth for the      second half of the year. As a result of Grameenphone’s commitment to continue prioritizing customer experience and journey, data usage grew by 38.8 percent from last year, while 4G data users increased by 23.6 percent to 3.42 crore at the end of 2022, despite ending the year with a lower subscriber base, said Yasir Azman.

On January 2, 2023, the regulator withdrew the ban on sim sales as a result of constructive dialog and engagement.

Grameenphone reported an improving financial performance in 2022 driven by topline and EBITDA growth.

With this, the total cash dividend stands at 220 percent of paid-up capital which represents 98.72 percent of Profit After Tax for the year 2022 (including 125 percent interim cash dividend).

The shareholders as of the record date of 26 February 2023 will be entitled for this final dividend, which is subject to the Shareholders’ approval at the 26th Annual General Meeting to be held on May 2 in 2023.

During the fourth quarter of 2022, Grameenphone invested Tk 5.0 billion (500.4 crore) for network coverage and expansion. At the end of the quarter, Grameenphone’s total number of sites stood at 20,080.

The company has paid Tk 104.3 billion (10,427 crore), equaling 69.3 percent of its total revenues, to the national exchequer in the form of taxes, VAT, duties, fees, 4G license and spectrum assignment during 2022.