Category: Media releases
On the side-lines of MWC Africa, Smart Africa and MTN have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to advance digital skills in Africa in an effort to develop capacity for Africans to utilise ICTs and be fully empowered participants of an ICT-driven economy and society.
The partnership establishes a digital skills ecosystem between the Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) and MTN Skills Academy to advance digital literacy, digital and financial skills training, and digital competencies. It seeks to unlock socioeconomic development by leveraging the power of technology to empower youth and women, and drive social inclusion for all, particularly differently abled persons.
According to the World Economic Forum some 230 million jobs across the continent will require some level of digital skills by 2030. With a clear focus on equipping African citizens with relevant skills, the partnership covers the development of demand-based skills training and trends, career pathways, occupations, job roles, skills and competencies for Africa’s ICT sector.
Lacina Koné, the DG and CEO of Smart Africa commented: “We are committed to bridging digital skill gaps across Africa to ensure the inclusive digital development of the continent. We are confident that the MTN Skills Academy will support us in accelerating our mission and nurturing an ecosystem of ICT specialized training that will increase digital proficiency across our member states. This is a testament of our bold and innovative multistakeholder approach”
The Smart Africa Digital Academy is a pan-African dynamic learning ecosystem which aims to improve digital skills qualifications, employability, and meet the emerging talent needs of African citizens. With a vision to create a single digital market in Africa by 2030, the Smart Africa Alliance ensures an all-inclusive digital transformation by building the digital skills of African citizens.
“Through our partnership with Smart Africa, we see the opportunity to accelerate our efforts to drive job creation, productivity and competitiveness through digital skills and technological innovations. This will go a long way in turning our continent from being largely consumers to producers of ICTs,” said MTN Group Chief Sustainability & Corporate Affairs Officer, Nompilo Morafo.
The MTN Skills Academy focuses on digital solutions to make career guidance accessible to all young people; enabling access to free digital and financial skills training; driving work readiness to enhance employment prospects; and creating a public and private sector-wide job hub to improve job placement prospects across the continent.
The partnership is a testament of the commitment of both Smart Africa and MTN to integrate ICT into the continents’ development agenda to reduce poverty, create prosperity and increase productivity on the continent.
Determined to play our part in building the digital skills that Africa needs for its digital transformation, MTN has launched the MTN Skills Academy to develop people across the continent as producers, consumers and innovators of digital technologies.
“We aim to create solutions that enhance opportunities and tackle some of the challenges that Africa faces. Unemployment is chief among these, exacerbated by low digital literacy, access and skills,” said MTN Group Chief Sustainability & Corporate Affairs Officer Nompilo Morafo. “Our ‘Digital Skills for Digital Jobs’ programme will enhance the link between digital skills training and demand for jobs. The MTN Skills Academy will act as an accessible-to-all tool.”
The Academy was launched on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress Africa in Kigali, Rwanda and is aligned with the African Union’s ‘Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa’ as well as MTN’s Ambition 2025 strategic intent of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress.
Rwanda’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology and Innovation Paula Ingabire spoke at the launch event on Tuesday. “This initiative nicely complements the programmes we are rolling out at country and continent level and enhances the ecosystem,” she said. “We are particularly pleased to have the tools to get to hard-to-reach places by getting devices into people’s hands so that they can participate in the initiative and get the necessary skills to be employable.”
MTN Rwanda Chief Executive Officer Mapula Bodibe thanked the Minister for her support, and said MTN Rwanda – alongside MTN operations in Ghana, Uganda and Zambia – would be the first to roll out the MTN Skills Academy in 2022. It will be launched in the Group’s other markets in 2023.
Of sub-Saharan Africa’s 200 million young people, around 38 million are not in any form of education, employment or training. This number is rising, and young women are more than twice as likely to be affected as young men, according to the International Labour Organization. The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development says that 60% of youth and adults must have at least a minimum level of proficiency in sustainable digital skills by 2025.
Together with various public and private sector partners, the MTN Skills Academy focuses on: digital solutions to make career guidance accessible to all young people; access to free online digital and financial skills training; driving work readiness to enhance employment prospects; and creating a public and private sector-wide job hub to improve job placement prospects across the continent.
Designed to be inclusive, its features include low-data use; zero-rating in select markets; country-specific and language functionality; as well as those features that enable its use by differently abled persons. It leverages the strengths of partners, including PACE Career Centre (to provide comprehensive career guidance) and online learning provider Coursera (to provide basic, intermediate and advanced technology and business skills training).
“MTN wants a prosperous Africa; one in which everyone benefits from a modern connected life. Our work is inextricably linked to the wellbeing of the communities we serve. With the MTN Skills Academy, Africans can prepare for emerging careers at unprecedented speed and scale, contributing significantly to solving the unemployment challenges the continent faces,” said Morafo.
MTN Group has announced that the network will host an Africa-first virtual concert on 30 November 2022 in Ubuntuland, Africa’s metaverse. In February this year, MTN Group became the first African company to purchase land in Ubuntuland with a vision to create dedicated environments for creating unique immersive experiences for its customers.
“The MTN Group’s presence in the African metaverse will be known as altMTN. altMTN allows us to further support our ambition to lead digital platforms and support African innovation, and will, over time feature live events, shopping, gaming and learning,” says Bernice Samuels, Executive: Group Marketing at MTN Group. “To welcome everyone to altMTN we will leverage our partnership with The Mic: Africa, to host Africa’s first virtual music concert in the metaverse to drive awareness and adoption of this new space”.
Analysis Group estimates that the Metaverse could contribute $40 billion to Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP by 2031. The Metaverse will provide African brands with significant opportunities to tell unique stories in engaging ways.
“Many people still see the virtual worlds and environments as confusing and inaccessible, and so we are very proud to bring the altMTN experience to market in a way that can be accessed via mobile, tablet, PC or VR handset” Samuels says. “For our launch event, we will be running a competition with our customers, giving them a chance to win exclusive tickets to the concert. We believe that by tapping into a key passion on the continent, namely music, we can actively draw our customers into the environment to not only experience it first-hand, but also to help us to improve altMTN as this developing technology increasingly interconnects and matures, to unlock the full benefits for our customers.”
“The metaverse holds a wide array of opportunities to further enhance and showcase African innovation and are excited to be pioneers of this journey on the continent,” concluded Samuels.
MTN Group hosted diplomats from across 18 markets at a special dinner at our Fairland headquarters on Tuesday, offering to work alongside their governments to help boost economic recovery in the countries we call home.
The annual event was MTN Group’s first in-person Ambassadors’ Dinner since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted all social engagements.
“One of our four strategic priorities is to ‘create shared value’ and regularly engaging with our key stakeholders is essential for us to deliver on this priority,” said MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita, adding that the Group stood ready to partner with governments to spur on economic growth and job creation.
“Just as Africa was starting to recover from the devastating impacts of the pandemic, we faced the local repercussions of the war in Ukraine. At MTN we take seriously our responsibility to assist our markets as best we can, and the tools of the digital economy can no doubt help accelerate recovery and growth.”
MTN Group is Africa’s largest network operator, with 282 million subscribers and the belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life. Our strategic intent is ‘Leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress’.
At the event, MTN eSwatini was announced as the winner of this year’s 21 Days of Y’ello Care employee volunteerism programme, which aims to secure strong participation by staff in high-impact social projects in their local communities.
Launched in 2007, the annual campaign allows MTNers to give of their time and resources to support those around them. In 2022, Y’ello Care was themed ‘Empowering Communities to Drive Economic Recovery and Job Creation’. More than 3 500 MTN staff volunteered, impacting over 7 800 people directly and some 23 700 indirectly.
As the winner, MTN eSwatini claimed US$100 000 from MTN Group to plough back into future community projects. The opco focused on using digital skills and tools as an enabler for income-generating opportunities. This was augmented by giving beneficiaries access to the newly launched MTN Foundation Khanyisa App.
“Leveraging our digital enablement tools and platforms ensures we help the continent move forward,” said MTN Group Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer Nompilo Morafo. “During the 21 Days of Y’ello Care, MTNers have shown that they can be drivers of change as we work towards fulfilling our continent’s potential.”
MTN Cameroon was declared the winner in MTN’s West and Central Africa region and MTN Uganda won in the Southern and East Africa region. They each received US$30 000 to use in future community projects. The ‘Innovation Award’ went to MTN Nigeria, while MTN Ghana and MTN Uganda shared the ‘Integrity Award’. MTN Zambia won the ‘Most Improved Award’.
MTN Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Fatima Laher as Group Executive: Group Legal, effective 1 October 2022. Fatima re-joins MTN from Samsung Electronics, where she held the role of Head of Africa Disputes, for the past six years.
Lele Modise, Group Chief Legal and Regulatory officer said, “Fatima is adept at providing expert strategic and innovative advice to senior leadership in the prestigious institutions she has worked for locally and internationally.”
“As Executive: Group Legal, Fatima will provide support in overseeing all legal areas and managing legal risk, supporting strategic projects and initiatives across MTN Group, as well as supporting the implementation of the Group Legal & Regulatory strategy,” concluded Modise.
Fatima is a seasoned multi-skilled Legal Executive with expertise across various disciplines, including but not limited to managing high value cross border litigation, legal risk mitigation and corporate investigations, mergers, and acquisitions, as well as commercial law.
Fatima brings more than 25 years of legal experience to MTN, having held various roles at pan-African (Bowman Gilfillan Africa Group, Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs Africa) and international law firms (Herbert Smith Freehills LLP (Dubai) and Norton Rose Fulbright LLP (Dubai). Some of her previous roles include being Partner (Director) at Bowman Gilfillan Africa Group, responsible for corporate compliance and investigations and Executive: Group Commercial Legal, Regulatory and Compliance at MTN Group.
Fatima is an Admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa. She holds Master of Laws, Honours in Law, and Bachelor of Arts degrees, all obtained from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
MTN Group is pleased to announce the continued recognition of its efforts to engage with stakeholders as we continue to create shared value in line with our Ambition 2025 strategy. The Group was recognised in a total of six categories at the Institutional Investor: 2022 Emerging EMEA Executive Team Awards.
The awards, which recognise the Emerging EMEA region’s best-rated Investor Relations (IR) and executive teams, are based on an independent assessment and rating of more than 17 IR performance metrics by leading global buy and sell side professionals.
Specifically, MTN Group attained second place rankings within EMEA TMT for the Best IR Program, Best Analyst/Investor Event, Best ESG, Best CEO, Best Company Board and Most Honoured Company.
The assessment was based on feedback from over 270 investment professionals and 183 financial services firms who were asked to provide ratings on metrics including CEO credibility, leadership and communication as well as the impact and productivity of roadshows, earnings calls and the IR teams’ responsiveness and knowledge of the company and sector.
MTN remains steadfast in our commitment to engaging with our stakeholders, and in this instance the investment community. The continuous feedback is critical to enhancing how the company communicates and engages with our stakeholders.
MTN Group was the only African company in the Top three of any category in EMEA TMT.
MTN Group today launched a brand campaign profiling MTN Business – the ICT leader in Africa, which aims to be a trusted partner to businesses in their digital evolution and ultimately achieve #BusinessDoneBetter across the continent.
“We understand that growing a business is hard. Business leaders are juggling many priorities and often cannot attend to them all,” said MTN Group Enterprise Business Unit Executive Tumi Chamayou. “MTN Business’s role is to assist them do the things that make an impact and support their growth, helping them get it done better.”
MTN Business provides the tools to shift small, medium and large enterprises and multinational corporations and those in the public sector to being modern, connected and digital. These include converged ICT – managed network services; cloud services; unified communications; security solutions; and Internet of Things – as well as connectivity (mobile and fixed).
Chamayou said the plan was for MTN Business to become the empowering, leading ICT expert providing value to enterprise clients. Among our customer base, we already have more than four million enterprises who are instrumental in contributing to Africa’s economic growth.
She said MTN Business also had a key role to play in realising the MTN Group’s Ambition 2025: Leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress: “Building the largest and most valuable platforms is one of Ambition 2025’s four strategic priorities. Enterprise Services is one of MTN’s five platform businesses and operates under the ‘MTN Business’ brand.”
Ambition 2025 targets MTN Group enterprise revenue of more than R30 billion by 2025. This compares to R16.6 billion in 2021. In the first six months of 2022, enterprise revenue accelerated, increasing by 26.8%* in constant currency terms to R9.9 billion. This was driven largely by MTN Business growth in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
African enterprises have a valuable role to play in addressing the continent’s most pressing challenges by providing much-needed jobs, products and services. World Bank data shows that SMEs contribute up to 60% of all employment and as much as 40% of the GDP in emerging economies. This makes them the cornerstone of most economies in Africa.
“We want to be the business enabler of choice in Africa, meeting the communication and ICT demands of business clients throughout the continent,” said Chamayou. “With a customer-centric approach to providing cutting-edge services, we are doing this by leveraging our brand and advanced network as well our strong customer base of top companies across sub-Saharan Africa.”
MTN Group, Africa’s largest mobile network operator, today announces the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Dooka, Africa’s first business-to-business (B2B) marketplace to automate the sourcing process of MTN’s long tail of indirect local spending.
The partnership promises a paradigm shift in corporate procurement on the continent, bringing the ease of consumer marketplace buying to companies across Africa. Dooka will boost MTN’s local supplier development initiatives, giving local suppliers – including women-owned businesses – the opportunity to sell to other customers on the platform, while providing MTN and other businesses with transparency in pricing and greater efficiencies.
“Our new relationship with Dooka is hugely exciting and brings efficiencies to every level of the supply chain. It stands to transform the way businesses operate across Africa,” says Dirk Karl, MTN Group Executive: Global Sourcing and Supply Chain. “It fits with our strategic priority to create shared value, a key component of which is greater localisation.”
Dooka CEO Toby Sparrow says it is a chance to revolutionise the supply chain: “Together with MTN, we can demonstrate that the right tools enable corporations to create jobs and support development and growth through good procurement. Dooka represents a new way to connect buyers and sellers across every industry. We are levelling the playing field so businesses large and small across Africa can transact as easily as if shopping at home and using the latest digital technologies.”
The partnership is a revenue-sharing one, which requires no capex commitment nor licence cost for its use by MTN, Dooka’s anchor client. There will also be no service fees for MTN suppliers until at least January 2024.
Committed to play our part in creating shared value and securing a Net Zero future, MTN Group today issued our first Climate Report aligned to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework.
Climate change presents a unique vehicle to unlock innovative opportunities for green industrialization and job creation critical in contributing towards Africa’s progress. At MTN, we are committed to achieve Net Zero by 2040. Taking climate action is an imperative to secure the socioeconomic development of our markets.
The TCFD guides companies in preparing climate-related disclosures to ensure consistency and alignment among organisations across the globe. MTN’s first TCFD-aligned report demonstrates the actions we are taking to build a more resilient financial system through climate-related disclosures.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report lists the top three threats in the medium and long term as failure to act on climate; extreme weather; and biodiversity loss. The world is already experiencing record heat waves and droughts, heavy rain and flooding. In April 2022, heavy storms in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa led to the loss of lives, destroyed thousands of homes and caused widespread infrastructure damage and power outages, also affecting MTN’s sites.
At MTN, we recognise that climate change has the potential to impact our business, as well as the communities we serve. We are taking action now to evaluate these risks, guided by the TCFD framework as a means of continuously creating shared value for our stakeholders.
We are also working to understand the potential opportunities in transitioning to a low-carbon economy and adopting clean energy technologies. We have already started integrating electric vehicles, solar and wind energy, and battery storage into our operations.
In 2021, we launched our Project Zero to leverage the latest technologies and service partnerships to deliver greater energy efficiency, lower our carbon emissions, reduce risks and improve our cost controls. This was followed by our commitment in February 2022 to support the recommendations of the TCFD.
We are pleased with the progress we have made so far, but there is still much work to be done. No company can do it alone, and we intend to use our influence, technology and reach to inspire and enable wider action to tackle the risks and opportunities presented by climate change to the benefit of our customers, and our stakeholders.
To view the report: https://bit.ly/3L6GIoV
MTN Group this week hosted MTN Nigeria’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee in Johannesburg for a strategy retreat during which the leadership of the Group’s largest subsidiary reflected on its strategic priorities for the next three years.
The three-day working visit – hosted by MTN Group Chairman Mcebisi Jonas and MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mupita – brought together for the first time in South Africa the boards and executive management teams of MTN Nigeria and MTN Group. The MTN Nigeria delegation was led by Chairman Ernest Ndukwe and CEO Karl Toriola.
During the trip, MTN Group and MTN South Africa held engagements attended by South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor and Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, as well as by Nigeria’s High Commissioner Muhammad Haruna Manta.
“Strong bi-national relationships between Nigeria and South Africa are critical for Africa’s progress,” said Jonas. “As MTN, we appreciate that our own progress cannot happen without the two nations building stronger and stronger ties and providing leadership to the continent.”
Mupita said MTN Nigeria represented approximately 40% of the value of MTN Group, and as such its achievements were key to the success of the Group: “As MTN Group, we are committed to supporting the business and ensuring that its success goes beyond just strong operational and financial performance, but also represents success for all stakeholders.”
“Initiatives such as extending rural broadband, driving financial inclusion from MTN Nigeria’s Payment Services Banking licence and ensuring further localisations remain critical for success and sustainability,” he added.
Jonas said MTN Nigeria was in good hands under the direction of Chairman Ndukwe and CEO Toriola. The MTN Nigeria leadership said that among the many discussions held in Johannesburg were how to navigate the unprecedented macro challenges that businesses across the world faced, as well as looking for the opportunities that these changes provided.
The MTN Nigeria leadership’s visit follows that of MTN Group’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee to Lagos in early July, when they held their own strategy retreat.
One of the four strategic priorities of MTN’s Ambition 2025 is to ‘create shared value’. Regularly engaging with our key stakeholders is essential for us to deliver on this priority.