The acceleration of digital investment across Africa could be boosted by harmonising regulations, and MTN Group president and CEO Ralph Mupita is urging governments to consider this.
Harmonised and streamlined regulations and policies support increased investment in the digital infrastructure required to accelerate the continent’s economic development.
“I would argue that . . . we need to think about harmonising regulatory developments, particularly in the technology space,” he says, highlighting the numerous regulations that apply across Africa, where the population is of a similar size to that of India, which is a single country where only one set of regulations applies.
Operating across multiple African countries entails navigating diverse regulatory environments, each with its own set of laws and regulations governing the telecommunications sector.
“How do we create regulatory systems that are common across Africa?” he asks, adding that harmonisation would also help investors better anticipate their own returns and in turn encourage investment.
Mupita, along with MTN Group chairperson Mcebisi Jonas, engaged with the leaders of a number of countries on the sidelines of the yearly Africa CEO Forum, held in Kigali, Rwanda, during May, where MTN reiterated its commitment to accelerating digital transformation across the African continent.
The Africa CEO Forum, held under the theme ‘At the table or on the menu? A critical moment to shape a new future for Africa’, was attended by about 2 000 business leaders, CEOs, investors, heads of State and Ministers.
“Discussions with national leaders centred on those topics that support the national development goals of our host nations and of Africa as a whole,” Jonas says, adding that these included regulatory and policy harmonisation, investment in digital infrastructure, broadband access and skills development.
MTN Group has mobile operations in 17 countries across Africa and is working to extend digital inclusion in line with United Nations goals for universal broadband access.
“Only around 500-million of the 1.2-billion people in Africa subscribe to mobile services. Just over half, at 57%, use 2G. This means only a quarter of Africans have access to the Internet. Most do not have smartphones, cannot afford them and are digitally excluded,” Mupita says.
To meet the demands of the digital age, Jonas adds that MTN is supporting the skilling and reskilling of people across Africa.
“These initiatives are crucial to foster an environment conducive to innovation, economic growth and sustainable development across Africa,” Mupita continues.
“While affordable connectivity and digital access can transform lives and bridge divides, sub-Saharan Africa still has broad coverage and use gaps. Therefore, we focus on bringing Internet access to underserved communities, increasing affordability for the most vulnerable groups of society and helping these groups to capitalise on all the benefits of connectivity by offering digital education and accessible experiences to enhance their digital participation.”
MTN aims to reach 200-million active data subscribers by 2025, doubling its data subscriber base, with a focus on providing affordable solutions, at multiple low-cost entry levels, and tailoring products and services that connect customers to the global community.
MTN’s CHASE framework, introduced in 2018, guides the company as it works to remove the five key barriers to mobile Internet adoption, namely coverage, handsets, affordability, service bundling and education and ease of access.
In 2023, the company invested significant amounts into site roll-outs, bringing connectivity to an additional 9.2-million people in 2023 and deploying 6 984 sites in rural areas across its operations.
“We have achieved broadband coverage of 89.2% across the geographies we operate in, nearing . . . our Ambition 2025 target of 95% and bringing the total number of people with rural coverage to 35.8-million,” Mupita highlights.
Further, MTN’s smartphone acceleration programme has driven smartphone adoption, resulting in over 183.3-million smartphones on its network across various markets in 2023, compared with 166.5-million in 2022.
“Innovating for low-cost 4G handset prices is the primary obstacle that blocks 2G subscribers from moving to a fully connected and digitally empowered 3G or 4G smartphone experience.
“To overcome this obstacle, in 2023, MTN successfully developed a 4G smartphone that will sell at a cost of only $30.”
The company has partnered with financing partners such as M-KOPA, Intelligra and PayJoy to make smartphones more accessible to people who cannot pay for them upfront.
“Our device financing programmes allow customers to pay a deposit, typically 20% to 30% of the device’s cost, and pay the remainder over several months.”
About 500 000 smartphones have been financed through various partnerships since launching in 2022.
Meanwhile, as mobile money (MoMo) transforms the financial services ecosystem in Africa, MTN aims to be a “transformative force” in the mobile financial services sector as it scales its fintech business to support cashless and digital economies.
MTN has set a target of reaching 100- million active consumer wallets and supporting five-million businesses through its MoMo fintech business by 2025.
In 2023, MTN recorded 72.5-million people actively using MoMo each month across 16 countries, facilitating more than $272.1- billion in transactions every month, an increase from 69.1-million and $221.3-billion in monthly transactions in 2022.
“We are continuing our efforts in developing MoMo solutions for high-potential industry verticals such as government, ecommerce, transport and agriculture, as well as fast-moving consumer goods, oil, gas and subsidies such as electricity and water,” Mupita outlines
.