MTN, Africa’s biggest mobile telephone operator, almost doubled its number of subscribers last year to 90.7m and has amassed cash as it anticipates a wave of consolidation in the telecoms sector on the continent.

Analysts have been eager to discover how the Johannesburg-based company, one of the success stories of post-apartheid South Africa, plans to continue the stellar growth which it has delivered by entering big but potentially difficult emerging markets in recent years.