MTN Group Ltd. (MTN), Africa’s largest mobile-phone company, said subscriber numbers rose 4 percent in the first three months of the year as the company added customers in Nigeria and Iran.

MTN had 147.2 million subscribers at the end of March, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement today. That compares with 141.6 million in the year ended December 31.

Mobile data and mobile money applications bolstered the company’s performance, with mobile money subscribers up 5 percent to 4.6 million, the company said.

MTN’s subscribers rose 4 percent to 40.2 million in Nigeria and 4 percent to 9 million in Ghana. MTN Irancell grew by 5.5 percent to 31.3 million users, the company said.

The company is facing “aggressive” competition and increased regulation in the south and east Africa region, it said. “The growth was slower than expected as a result of higher prepaid disconnections due mainly to seasonality,” MTN said. Average revenue per user in South Africa decreased by 9 percent to 299 rand ($44.19) while in the prepaid segment average revenue declined 10 percent to 101 rand, the company said. In Nigeria average revenue per user dropped 6 percent to $10.