Telecom
Tech Companies Making a Difference in Africa
Africa has long been touted as the continent with the most growth potential when it comes to tech and innovation. Many African countries are building their own equivalents of Silicon Valley and tech companies from all across the world have been setting up offices and launching themselves into markets across the continent. And in addition to growing their customer bases, these companies are also committing to making affecting change in Africa.Here’s how.
They are Investing in communities and equipping people to become entrepreneurs
Last year Airbnb announced a three-year commitment to South Africa to address barriers to becoming a tourism entrepreneur, and to help rebuild a more inclusive and resilient domestic tourism economy. The commitment focuses on infrastructure, training and investment and builds on Airbnb’s 2017 USD $1 million commitment in Africa to boost community-led tourism projects, and the Africa Academy, which has trained more than 300 Hosts.
As part of this commitment, Airbnb announced its partnership with the University of Johannesburg School of Tourism and Hospitality to expand the Airbnb Academy programme to at least 1000 students over the next three years.
They are assisting in developing quality journalists and newsrooms
Over the years, Google, perhaps the biggest tech giant in the world, has been doing its fair share for small businesses, content creators and business owners across Africa. And just recently the company announced that five South African recipients have been selected as part of Google’s News Initiative (GNI) Innovation Challenge.
The GNI Innovation Challenge is aimed at helping the journalism industry thrive in the digital era. Their projects are among 34 chosen from 17 countries, to receive a share of $3.2 million in funding.The recipients, among them 21 journalists and publishers from 10 countries in Africa, were selected for their work in promoting diversity, equality, and inclusion in the journalism industry. The GNI Innovation Challenge is part of Google’s $300 million commitment to helping journalism thrive in the digital era and has seen news innovators step forward with many exciting initiatives demonstrating new thinking.
Companies are nurturing talent from a young age
“At Huawei South Africa, we have long been committed to cultivating ICT talent and discovering new ways to harness technological innovation to advance sustainability,”says Vanashree Govender, Media and Communications Manager for Huawei South Africa. “Last year, we launched our Tech4Good Global Competition as part of our Seeds for the Future talent development programme, which exposes learners to courses on the latest technologies like 5G, Cloud, AI and IoT. The Tech4Good competition gets students to think about how to use technology to address social and environmental issues. Through this programme, participants boost their creativity, hone their entrepreneurship skills, and develop a sense of social responsibility. This is a fun team effort, with coaching by Huawei experts and world-renowned social impact leaders”.
Huawei also runs a Tech4All program globally in which Huawei works with partners to create real change through connecting the unconnected, empowering underserved communities and protecting the planet. In South Africa, Huawei’s DigiSchool project in partnership with operator rain and educational non-profit organisation Click Foundation, has connected over 100 urban and rural primary schools to the internet using 5G technology.
They are building the right skills through access to digital media education
Today, there are local entrepreneurs in fields as diverse as fashion, healthcare, and decor who have proven that with more equal access to the digital marketing ecosystem, it’s possible to expand regionally and internationally.
In order for that to happen at scale, they also need the requisite skills to market themselves online in the markets they want to reach. At the very least, those entrepreneurs should have easy access to people with those skills. It’s important to note here, that these aren’t just fundamental digital marketing skills, but ones that relate to the specifics of marketing on the world’s leading digital advertising platforms such as Twitter, Snapchat, and Spotify where people across the globe spend most of their time online. With the right types of messages, these platforms are the most effective places to reach new customers across a broad range of markets.
“This is something that we’re passionate about, and recently, Ad Dynamo by Aleph launched a free Digital Ad Expert programme for young people in Nigeria and Ghana, which aims to educate, certify and connect thousands of Africans with the digital skills needed to succeed in a rapidly digitising economy. While it’s entirely possible that someone with the right degree of determination and curiosity could develop those skills on their own, it’s critical that more and more resources are accessible to build them up at scale,” says Elyse Estrada, Global Chief Marketing Office, Aleph Group.
This is crucial to ensuring that markets such as Ghana and Nigeria aren’t just growth targets for international companies, but incubators for a new generation of entrepreneurs capable of competing on a global level themselves.
They are creating access for everyone
MFS Africa, the continent’s largest omnichannel payment gateway, believes in a “borderless world” in which everyone has access. Their comprehensive digital networks link 320 million mobile wallets, enabling cross-border payments remittance firms, financial service providers, and worldwide merchants.
MFS Africa CEO and Founder, Dare Okoudjo believes that interoperability is crucial in allowing customers of different mobile financial services providers to interact with each other. This can be done by making direct payments from the mobile money account of one provider to the mobile money account of another provider.
To do this, MFS Africa acquired Global Technology Partners (GTP) recently, broadening its bank and fintech base and supplying tokenisation in the mobile money space by connecting with established card ecosystems like Visa and Mastercard. The ultimate objective is to give millions of mobile money users on the continent access to the global digital economy and new possibilities. For its partners, these new capabilities enable scalability, security, and new markets and consumers as technology innovation continues to penetrate and reshape societies.
MTN Nigeria has marked 25 years of commercial operations, with Karl Toriola, chief executive officer, saying the company began operating in the country at a time when telecommunications access was severely limited.
Toriola said that a quarter of a century ago, making a phone call was a privilege few Nigerians could afford.
People queued at public telephone booths and centres, travelled long distances to deliver messages, and sometimes waited weeks for letters to arrive, he said, noting that a mobile phone was then beyond the reach of most.
Today, the company connects more than 90 million people across Nigeria, a figure MTN says reflects its role in building the infrastructure behind the country’s shift to a data-driven economy.
MTN entered Nigeria in 2001 following the GSM liberalisation carried out by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), at a time when mobile telephony was still a luxury reserved for a privileged few.
Toriola said the milestone was about more than subscriber numbers.
Businesses have been built, families have stayed connected across distances, students have gained access to knowledge, and creators have found audiences beyond Nigeria’s borders, he said, crediting the wider telecommunications ecosystem for enabling entire new industries to emerge.
The company also pointed to its role beyond direct connectivity.
MTN has helped build a wider value chain of SIM registration agents, tower contractors, retail distributors, fintech partners and digital developers that now supports millions of livelihoods in Nigeria.
Toriola thanked MTN Nigeria’s customers, saying their trust had allowed the company to expand its community investments through the MTN Foundation, which has supported health, education, youth development and economic empowerment programmes.
Looking ahead, the CEO acknowledged that significant connectivity gaps remain, with millions of Nigerians still needing access to reliable, affordable and inclusive digital services.
He said greater digital inclusion would be a central priority for the company’s next chapter, adding that the anniversary marks both a celebration of the past 25 years and a renewed push to expand digital access for the country’s young and growing population.
“We’ve come a long way. And we are only getting started,” Toriola said.
The anniversary comes as MTN Nigeria continues to navigate rising operating costs tied to Nigeria’s unreliable power supply.
Where the national grid is unreliable, the company and its infrastructure partners have had to rely on diesel generators, batteries, solar systems and other backup power solutions, making network operating costs highly sensitive to fluctuations in diesel prices.
Telecommunications subscribers under the umbrella of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), has handed telecommunications operators in the country September deadline to improve network quality or face legal action.
Deolu Ogunbanjo, president, NATCOMS, said that subscribers have endured deteriorating network services despite repeated interventions, warnings, and sanctions by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
As reported by BusinessDay, Ogunbanjo, noted that if the situation fails to improve through regulatory intervention, NATCOMS will seek justice through the courts by the end of the third quarter.
The ultimatum comes as rising data consumption, subscriber migration, and growing demand for mobile services place severe pressure on network infrastructure across parts of the country.
The NCC stated that mobile operators have offered compensation to more than 75 million subscribers for poor network quality following a regulatory directive requiring restitution in locations where performance fell below required standards.
The regulator is conducting an independent review to determine whether all eligible subscribers received proper compensation.
The compensation scheme, provided through automatic airtime credits for verified service failures dating back to November 2025, requires no individual claims from consumers.
For many subscribers, however, airtime credits do little to offset the broader economic and personal toll of unreliable connectivity.
Emeka Douglas, a subscriber, recounted how poor network quality nearly turned a medical emergency into a tragedy when he was unable to transfer funds to a hospital during his wife’s surgery.
Douglas noted that his brother in the United States eventually sent funds directly to the hospital’s account after local banking channels failed.
Janet Okoye, a small business owner, said unreliable connectivity severely affected her business after service disruptions on her Airtel and Globacom lines led clients to cancel orders.
Teniola Adeyemi, a university student, highlighted dropped calls as a major concern, stressing that recent tariff increases ought to reflect in better service quality.
Grace Eze, an Abuja-based media professional, explained that fluctuating network connectivity once delayed a lead news story intended for her editor in Lagos, resulting in an official query over late submission.
Pressure on national networks is driven by both expanding subscriber numbers and rising usage intensity.
Active telephony subscriptions in Nigeria rose from 182.2 million in January 2026 to over 187 million by April, according to NCC data. MTN leads the market with 96.4 million subscriptions, followed by Airtel with 64.7 million and Globacom with 23.2 million.
Telecom
ipNX Collaborates with ICT Stakeholders on the Future of Fibre-to-the-Home in Nigeria @ ATCON Forum
ipNX Nigeria joined other stakeholders across the telecommunications ecosystem as they convened at the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) Critical Conversation Forum on Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) to deliberate on practical solutions to the challenges affecting broadband infrastructure deployment and the future of fibre connectivity in the country.
The forum, themed “Fibre to the Home in Nigeria: Addressing Challenges, Strengthening Standards and Ensuring Sustainable Deployment,” was held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Lagos, and brought together representatives from government agencies, telecommunications operators, regulators, infrastructure providers, industry associations, and the media to foster dialogue around policies and collaborative actions needed to accelerate Nigeria’s broadband ambition.
Delivering the keynote address virtually, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Aminu Maida, described Fibre-to-the-Home as a critical enabler of Nigeria’s digital future.
“FTTH is uniquely positioned to meet Nigerians’ next phase of data demand. The quality of our broadband will increasingly shape the competitiveness of our businesses, the growth of our digital industry and the opportunities available to our citizens,” he said.
Dr. Maida also stressed the importance of protecting telecommunications infrastructure, noting that damage to fibre networks carries significant economic consequences.
“We must uphold deployment standards. Nigeria needs fibre that is properly installed, properly documented, and properly protected.”
Speaking during the opening session, ATCON President, Mr. Tony Emoekpere, underscored the strategic importance of FTTH in achieving Nigeria’s broadband penetration targets while calling for greater public awareness around protecting communications infrastructure.
“This forum is critical because Fibre-to-the-Home is the technology that will enable the country to achieve full broadband penetration. We all depend on communication infrastructure, and it must be protected.”
Drawing a comparison with power infrastructure in the country, he added:
“If somebody comes to your neighbourhood to tamper with your transformer or power cables, everybody will come out. The same thing needs to apply for communications infrastructure. When we see people damaging fibre cables, we should raise an alarm.”
The forum also highlighted successful collaborative initiatives at the state level. Speaking on infrastructure management, Director-General of the Oyo State Infrastructure Management and Control Agency (OYSIMCA), Mr. Adebayo Akande, shared how the agency is addressing fibre theft, vandalism, and promoting shared infrastructure among operators.
He explained that encouraging operators to utilise common pole infrastructure along shared routes would reduce unnecessary duplication, minimise infrastructure damage, improve urban aesthetics, and optimise investment across the sector.
Similarly, Managing Director of the Edo State Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Mr. Eghosa Urhoghide, advocated stronger collaboration among operators, regulators, government institutions, road maintenance agencies, and host communities.
He emphasised that strict adherence to NCC deployment standards remains essential to ensuring the long-term sustainability and resilience of Nigeria’s telecommunications infrastructure.
Representing ipNX on the panel discussion titled “Policy, Governance and Regulatory Alignment,” Mr. Segun Okuneye, Deputy Director, Strategic Business Initiatives, highlighted the need for stronger collaboration across the telecommunications ecosystem to unlock the full potential of fibre broadband in Nigeria.
According to him, sustainable fibre deployment extends beyond technology and investment to include policy consistency, stakeholder alignment, infrastructure protection, and shared responsibility.
“Achieving universal fibre connectivity requires more than deploying infrastructure, it requires sustained collaboration between operators, regulators, government agencies and host communities.
“When policies are aligned, deployment standards are consistently enforced, and critical infrastructure is protected, we create an environment where investment thrives and more Nigerians can enjoy reliable, high-speed broadband.
“At ipNX, we remain committed to working with all stakeholders to build resilient digital infrastructure that will support Nigeria’s economic growth for generations to come.”
Throughout the discussions, participants agreed that while Nigeria has made considerable progress in broadband expansion, addressing recurring issues such as fibre vandalism, right-of-way challenges, inconsistent deployment practices, infrastructure duplication, and limited public awareness will require stronger partnerships and coordinated industry action.
The forum concluded with a shared commitment among stakeholders to strengthen industry standards, encourage infrastructure sharing, improve policy implementation, and promote greater public appreciation of telecommunications infrastructure as critical national assets deserving of protection.
For ipNX, participation in the ATCON Critical Conversation Forum reinforces our company’s ongoing commitment to supporting industry-wide initiatives that advance broadband penetration, strengthen digital infrastructure, and accelerate Nigeria’s journey towards a more connected and digitally inclusive future.
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