MTN Says Africa’s Next Connectivity Push Cannot Be Built Alone

Africa’s largest mobile operators are pressing governments to rethink how telecommunications infrastructure is financed and regulated, arguing that the continent’s next phase of digital growth will require a level of investment that individual companies cannot sustain on their own.

MTN Group has emerged as one of the leading advocates for broader infrastructure-sharing arrangements that would allow competing operators to jointly fund and use network assets such as fiber backbones, towers and other critical facilities. The company argues that the economics that defined Africa’s telecom expansion over the past two decades are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain as operators face rising demand for data, cloud services and artificial intelligence applications.

Industry estimates place Africa’s digital infrastructure financing shortfall at roughly $100 billion. For operators, the challenge is becoming more acute as investment requirements expand beyond traditional connectivity into data centers, edge computing and next-generation mobile networks.

The shift in industry thinking reflects a growing recognition that duplication is consuming capital. For years, operators competed by building separate physical networks in the same markets. Executives now argue that model leaves fewer resources available for expanding broadband access and supporting emerging digital services.

MTN Group Senior Vice President Ebenezer Asante has been among the industry figures calling for greater collaboration on infrastructure ownership. The company’s position is that some categories of network investment are better suited to shared funding models that distribute costs and reduce financial risk.

Support for that approach is also coming from the GSM Association (GSMA), which has urged governments, regulators and operators to work more closely on expanding digital infrastructure across the continent.

The campaign is unfolding against a broader backdrop of African economic integration efforts that have often struggled to move beyond national regulatory boundaries. While the African Continental Free Trade Area seeks to create a more unified market, businesses across sectors continue to contend with differing licensing regimes, regulatory standards and compliance requirements that raise the cost of operating across borders. Similar obstacles have slowed progress in other integration initiatives, including agreements covering movement of people, professional qualifications and cross-border services.
For telecom operators, those barriers increasingly carry a financial cost. Companies investing across multiple jurisdictions often face different rules governing infrastructure ownership, spectrum management and digital services despite serving what is becoming a more connected continental market.

That issue extends beyond telecommunications. Several large operators are also advocating for reforms that would make it easier for digital financial services to operate across borders. Industry leaders argue that fragmented licensing systems continue to slow the development of regional payment ecosystems and digital commerce.

Those discussions overlap with wider efforts to strengthen Africa’s financial integration architecture. Initiatives such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System were created to reduce reliance on foreign currencies and make it easier for businesses to transact across African markets using local currencies. Policymakers increasingly view payment interoperability as a necessary component of deeper regional trade integration.

Alongside regulatory reform, operators are targeting another challenge: affordability. Industry data indicates that hundreds of millions of Africans live within mobile broadband coverage areas but remain offline because internet-enabled devices and data services remain out of reach financially.

To address that gap, the African Group of Six—an alliance that includes MTN, Vodacom, Airtel Africa, Orange, Axian Telecom and Ethio Telecom—has launched initiatives focused on lowering the cost of smartphone ownership. The coalition represents roughly 60% to 65% of the continent’s mobile subscriber base and has called on governments to review taxes and import duties that increase the cost of entry-level devices.

The affordability debate is closely tied to broader digital development goals. Despite substantial improvements in connectivity over the past decade, internet usage rates remain relatively low across much of the continent, with cost frequently identified as one of the biggest barriers to adoption. International development institutions have estimated that tens of billions of dollars will still be required to establish the infrastructure foundations of a continent-wide digital economy.

Regulators remain cautious about the industry’s proposals. Competition authorities and financial supervisors continue to examine whether shared infrastructure models could strengthen the market position of dominant operators and make it harder for smaller competitors to expand.

Those concerns have already surfaced in major transactions. South Africa’s lengthy review of the proposed Vodacom-Maziv deal became one of the most closely watched examples of how regulators are balancing investment needs against competition concerns. The transaction ultimately proceeded only after extensive scrutiny and additional commitments.

The outcome of these debates could shape the structure of Africa’s digital economy for years to come. Telecom operators argue that larger, more integrated markets would improve investment efficiency and accelerate deployment of broadband, cloud computing and AI infrastructure. Regulators, meanwhile, are weighing how to encourage that investment without weakening competition.

MTN has already begun preparing its network for that future. The company is upgrading tower sites with computing infrastructure designed to process data closer to users, reflecting a wider industry push toward edge computing as demand grows for lower-latency digital services.

Behind the infrastructure debate sits a broader question facing policymakers across the continent: whether Africa can build the scale required for the next generation of digital services while regulation, licensing and investment decisions remain largely organized along national lines.

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